Avengers Endgame: Encore Tops Box Office With $26M as 4 Films Nearly Clear $20M

Q: What secret footage in the Avengers re-release is driving massive adult turnout ahead of the upcoming December sequel?

The draw appears to be the new “Avengers: Doomsday” setup footage added to “Avengers: Endgame Encore,” especially scenes involving Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom. Reports say the re-release adds about four minutes of new material plus a special preview tied directly to December’s sequel. The footage includes Loki showing up at Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter’s door in TVA gear, a TVA scene hinting that the multiverse is collapsing, Bruce Banner confronting Doctor Doom in a bunker, and a final tag showing Doom forging his metal mask to the same clanging sound once associated with Tony Stark. That Doom reveal is the key hook. Marvel and Disney are using the re-release to bridge “Endgame” to “Avengers: Doomsday,” and the added scenes reportedly connect the old Avengers era to the next event film in a way fans had not seen before. With premium-format sales strong and turnout especially robust among adults 18-34, the evidence suggests the promise of exclusive Doomsday-linked footage—not just nostalgia—is powering the surge. In short, the “secret footage” driving the adult audience is the new Doomsday teaser material embedded in the re-release, led by the first substantial on-screen setup for Downey’s Doctor Doom.

3 articles · Updated · Deadline · Sep 27

$26 million put Avengers Endgame: Encore atop the North American weekend, beating last year’s Revenge of the Sith re-release opening of $25.4 million.
60% of Encore’s gross came from Imax and other premium large-format screens, with the reissue adding up to 6 minutes 17 seconds of extra footage to promote Avengers: Doomsday.
A $122.3 million overall frame made it one of the strongest late-September weekends in years, even as a Nor’easter hit the Northeast without causing material theater closures.
Resident Evil held second with $23.3 million and a $103.4 million 10-day total, while Heart of the Beast opened to $20 million and A24’s Primetime to $19.1 million.
The surge pushed 2026 domestic box office to the verge of $8 billion by next weekend, far earlier than last year’s December milestone.