By Robert Moran, Alexandra Gauci and Genevieve Rota
Avengers: Endgame has opened with a Thanos-sized bang, with cinemas sessions sold out around the country as fans rush to see the final instalment of Marvel's 22-film chapter, which began with Iron Man in 2008.
The movie sold $3.8 million worth of tickets in the first 24 hours of presale, passing the $2.8 million first-day presale record set by Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015.
As of Wednesday morning, presale figures for Endgame were already at $18 million – more than double the amount 2018's Avengers: Infinity War raked in.
While Disney would not be drawn on box office projections for the film, chances of it surpassing The Force Awakens' opening weekend record of $27.2 million look good.
Majority of Event Cinemas' sessions on Wednesday - there were over 50 at Sydney's George Street theatre alone - sold out, while the IMAX theatre in Melbourne, which holds 450 people, has sessions sold for the next week and a half, at an average adult ticket price of $40.
Avengers: Endgame has raked in $18 million in presale tickets so far.Credit: Marvel Studios
"Before the film opened we presold 12,000 tickets, which is pretty great because we're a single-screen theatre," says Kate Piasecka, IMAX Melbourne's brand and PR manager. "It really was insane."
"It's the biggest [film opening] we've had since The Force Awakens back in 2015. Every three hours we have 450 people waiting to go into the theatre while another
450 people exit the theatre, so we have 900 people on
site every three hours. It's really exciting, the buzz is amazing."
Outside a Hoyts cinema in Melbourne, passionate fans were happy to sing the film's praises on their way out, with the general consensus being that the superhero closer has been handled elegantly.
"I think it lived up to the hype well," said 27-year-old Sam Needham from St Kilda. "It did everything it promised to do and everything people were hyped about."
Avengers fans in cosplay outfits at Melbourne's IMAX Cinema.Credit: Eddie Jim
Morgan Bell, 21, from Kensington, shared the sentiment. "I thought that it was a satisfying conclusion and jumping-off point," he said. "It more than lived up to the hype for me."
Rave reviews weren't reserved for the diehards, either: critics have universally given the film a thumbs up, praising its eye-opening scale and hefty emotional pull. And, of course, there's the sentimental pay-off, in fans farewelling characters they've spent 11 years championing and investing in with over $25 billion in global pocket change.
It's enough to make a grown man cry, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age critic Jake Wilson wrote.
"For young adults who have literally grown up with these movies, the experience may be emotionally overwhelming. The hint that we are all surrogate members of the Marvel family can also be seen as an uncommonly slick sales pitch – but right before the end credits I confess I too may have teared up, just for a moment," he wrote.
By opening day's end, aggregator Rotten Tomatoes had certified the film "96 per cent fresh" based on 109 critic reviews.
"In all its surreal grandiosity, in all its delirious absurdity, there is a huge sugar rush of excitement to this mighty finale, finally interchanging with euphoric emotion and allowing us to say poignant farewells," The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw wrote, labelling the film a "pure exotic spectacle".
Pushing three hours’ runtime, one might expect the film to punish viewers' endurance. Not so, wrote Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times. "Despite its epic ambitions, Endgame often feels shorter, looser and lighter on its feet than some of its Marvel brethren," he wrote.
With the hashtag #DontSpoiltheEndgame trending higher on Twitter than the actual movie title for most of opening day, it seems there's only one way to rain on the Avengers: Endgame parade: by spoiling it for those who haven't got their tickets yet.