Avengers: Endgame is back in theaters Sept. 25 as Endgame: Encore, a re-release with a new intro, added footage, and an end tag Disney says "creates a bridge" to Avengers: Doomsday. According to Variety India, the encore is also the launch event for a new premium big-screen format.
Disney didn't release a movie. It released a trailer, a 185-minute one, with an intermission. The new footage isn't a scene, it's a handshake between the 2019 Marvel and the December Marvel, and the studio even redrew the poster so the same six heroes look freshly distressed. Joe Russo calls the footage a "bridge." A bridge is what you build when you don't want to pay for the trip.
Here's the math the whole town is doing. Endgame sits at about $2.797 billion. Avatar, also a Disney movie, sits at about $2.923 billion. Same company, two movies, one all-time trophy, and that trophy has been changing hands like a group chat. The encore is how Disney's marketing department gets to decide, in public, which of its own movies is the best one. You, the audience, are the scoreboard. TheWrap has the opening weekend numbers, and they're fine, which means the scoreboard is working.
And the cherry on top: the Doomsday end tag only shows up in IMAX and the new Infinity Vision screens. So you can buy the regular ticket and watch the 2019 movie, or pay the premium and watch the 2019 movie plus a 30-second ad for the 2026 movie. The post-credits scene is now a tiered subscription. Marvel didn't find a new way to end a story, it found a new way to up-sell the ending.
YOUR TURN: would you pay the premium ticket to see a 2019 movie and a 30-second ad for a movie that hasn't come out yet. answer honestly.
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