Thanos is coming.
Of course, we’ve known about that ever since the Infinity Stones made their cinematic debut way back in ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’. But now it looks as though he’ll be getting here sooner than expected. Today, Marvel Studios announced on Twitter that ‘Infinity War’ will be in theaters a week early, hitting on April 27th rather than May 4th.
That’s a FANTASTIC idea! Done.
Avengers: #InfinityWar in theaters everywhere April 27th. pic.twitter.com/n5JhJWpnqc
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) March 1, 2018
But at the risk of looking a gift horse in the mouth, why? Why move the film’s release date at all? Well, the most common reason to move a film’s release date like this is to avoid competition. But this is an ‘Avengers’ movie. More than that, it’s the ‘Avengers’ movie that fans have been waiting a decade to see. And on top of that, if Disney has the confidence to release it as an early summer tentpole, what competition could they possibly be worried about at this stage? After all, even if it turns out to be a dud, it’s virtually guaranteed to rake in money at the box office (just look at ‘Batman v Superman’ if you doubt that). In any case, the stiffest competition in May is Fox’s ‘Deadpool 2’ on the 18th and Disney’s own ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ on the 25th. Of the two, Whether it needs the help or not, moving ‘Avengers’ forward like this gives it an extra week during which it can comfortably clean up at the box office.
Or their reasoning could be as simple as “because we can.” Because let’s not kid ourselves. There’s very little Disney can’t get away with at this point.
Directed by the Russo brothers from a script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ marks the culmination of a decade-long effort by Marvel Studios, and the Avengers team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy to go head to head with Thanos. The film, which stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, Karen Gillan, Paul Rudd, Chadwick Boseman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olson, Sebastian Stan, and too many others to count, is due to arrive in theaters on April 27, 2018.
