Avengers: Infinity War Crushes Marvel's Box Office Record

It should come as no surprise that Avengers: Infinity War is cleaning up at the box office. However, you might not have expected it to do this well. Thanks to its Thursday night preview screenings, the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie has already raked in $39 million domestically--giving it the fourth best opening night ever.

The news comes from Variety, which reports that Infinity War's Thursday night haul trails only Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2. That makes it the highest opening night for a movie in the MCU, destroying Avengers: Age of Ultron's $27.6 million from 2015. It also outpaces the $25.2 million Black Panther made during preview screenings two months ago.

Now all eyes are on the opening weekend gross. Infinity War is estimated to earn between $225 and $245 million domestically in its first weekend, though Variety notes there's a possibility it would cross $250 million. Should that happen, it would become the biggest opening weekend of all time, besting the $248 million that Star Wars: The Force Awakens bowed to in 2015.

Whatever the case, Infinity War is going to make a ton of money and Marvel is going to get to do it all over again next year when Avengers 4 hits theaters, concluding the story introduced in this movie. Have you seen Avengers: Infinity War? If so, take a look at GameSpot's spoiler coverage, from an explanation of Peter Dinklage's character to what that post-credits scene means.