U.S. Box Office: ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Returns to No. 1 With $26 Million in Re-Release

Sharad Jaiswal

September 28, 2026

The domestic box office delivered an unusually crowded and competitive weekend as Disney and Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame Encore returned to theaters and took the No. 1 spot with $26 million from 3,060 theaters. The re-release finished ahead of Resident Evil, which added $23.3 million in its second weekend, while three new releases — Heart of the Beast, Primetime and Forgotten Island — all opened above $10 million. The five films at the top of the chart each crossed the $10 million mark, contributing to one of the strongest late-September weekends in recent years.

Avengers: Endgame Encore is an unusual No. 1 because the film is returning to theaters seven years after its original release and has already been widely available to audiences. The re-release generated $26 million domestically from 3,060 theaters, averaging $8,497 per location. With the new theatrical run, Endgame’s domestic lifetime total has moved to approximately $884.37 million.

The re-release performed even more strongly overseas, adding $60 million internationally for an $86 million worldwide weekend. The new version includes additional material connected to the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, giving Marvel another theatrical opportunity to reconnect audiences with the franchise ahead of the December release.

The weekend result also demonstrates the continued ability of major franchise films to bring audiences back to theaters through special-event releases. According to industry analyst David A. Gross, re-releases rarely generate more than $10 million domestically, making the $26 million opening particularly notable. IMAX also contributed to the performance, with the premium-format chain accounting for about $13.7 million of the film’s global weekend, according to Deadline.

Resident Evil moved into second place with $23.3 million in its second weekend, declining 61% from its opening frame. Despite the sizable drop, the film crossed the $100 million domestic mark in only 10 days, reaching approximately $103.48 million. Its worldwide total has reached roughly $196.5 million, keeping the Sony horror reboot on a substantial theatrical run after its $60 million opening weekend.

The first of the weekend’s major new releases was Heart of the Beast, which opened at No. 3 with $20 million from 3,435 theaters. The film averaged $5,822 per location and generated approximately $50.1 million worldwide when its international opening is included. Its domestic debut put it just ahead of another major new release, Primetime, which opened to $19.2 million.

Primetime landed in fourth place with $19.197 million from 2,874 theaters. While its opening was slightly below Heart of the Beast, its $6,680 per-theater average was higher, giving it the strongest location average among the three major new wide releases. The A24 film also benefited from Robert Pattinson’s presence and arrived in a substantially smaller theater footprint than Heart of the Beast and Forgotten Island.

DreamWorks Animation’s Forgotten Island completed the new-release top five with $12.8 million from 3,548 theaters. Its $3,608 per-theater average was considerably lower than the other two wide openings. The film added approximately $7.8 million from 31 international markets, taking its worldwide opening to around $20.6 million.

The opening comes against a reported production cost of around $80 million, making the domestic start modest relative to the film’s production scale. However, Forgotten Island received strong audience and critical response, including an A CinemaScore and a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score reported over the weekend. That reception could become important as the film moves into subsequent weekends, particularly given its family audience and the crowded opening frame.

The three new releases therefore entered the marketplace with distinctly different opening profiles. Heart of the Beast led the group in total domestic business, Primetime posted the strongest per-theater average, while Forgotten Island arrived with the widest theater count of the three but the lowest opening and per-theater figure. Their subsequent holds will provide a clearer indication of how the films are positioned for their theatrical runs.

The strength of the overall weekend was not limited to the top five. According to Rentrak estimates, domestic ticket sales were up 58.5% from the comparable weekend last year, while the 2026 domestic box office had accumulated approximately $7.8 billion, putting the year around 19% ahead of the same point in 2025.

Practical Magic 2 dropped to sixth place with $5.675 million in its third weekend, down 53%. The Warner Bros. sequel has now collected approximately $59.84 million domestically after 17 days.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day followed in seventh with $4.1 million, a 36% decline from the previous weekend. Its domestic total has reached approximately $950.68 million, leaving the film within roughly $50 million of the $1 billion mark.

The Odyssey continued its extended theatrical run in eighth place, adding $3.7 million in its 11th weekend. The Christopher Nolan epic declined only 25% and reached approximately $616.52 million domestically. Its $3,624 per-theater average from 1,021 theaters was higher than that of Forgotten Island despite playing on substantially fewer screens.

Coyote vs. Acme placed ninth with $1.912 million, down 57%, bringing its domestic total to approximately $58.39 million. Daniel and the Fiery Furnace rounded out the Top 10 with $1.514 million, down 54%, for a domestic total of approximately $6.20 million.

The September 25–27 frame ultimately combined the unusual strength of a major franchise re-release with three substantial new openings and a $100 million milestone for Resident Evil. With Avengers: Endgame Encore demonstrating the commercial potential of event-driven re-releases and Primetime, Heart of the Beast and Forgotten Island beginning their theatrical runs, the coming weekends will determine how much of this frame’s momentum translates into sustained business.

U.S. Domestic Box Office — Weekend Business