It’s official – Avengers: Infinity War is just as barn-storming a success as we all suspected it would be. The current box office gross sits at a whopping $641 million. With $258 million of that being collected from North America, that makes it the biggest opening weekend of all time. Not only that, but it’s also already earned more than six MCU movies did in their entire run – as well as a couple of entries in the rival DCEU franchise.
In honor of this incredible opening weekend, Joss Whedon – the man who helmed the first two Avengers films – has taken to Twitter to congratulate the guys who took the baton from him and made Infinity War: namely, the Russo brothers and writers Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus, who Whedon jokingly called “the other Russo brothers.”
Here’s what he said:
Congratulations to the Russo Brothers on
#infintywar’s well-deserved bonkers opening wknd. And to the other Russo brothers, Christopher Marcus & Stephen McFeely. Heavy load, wonderfully light touch. I’m a proud grampa.
Whedon calling himself the “proud grampa” of the MCU is a fair nickname. He is the man responsible for first uniting Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in The Avengers, after all, as well as helming Age of Ultron, so it’s true to say that the franchise would look very different if it wasn’t for him. It’s also worth mentioning that it was Whedon’s idea to introduce Thanos as the over-arching villain at the end of The Avengers. So there genuinely might not be an Infinity War without him.
That said, the MCU had to expand with the original generation of directors of the franchise passing the buck to fresh faces, so we’re glad that Anthony and Joe Russo have been entrusted with taking over the Avengers movies from Whedon. As the man himself points out, they – and their screenwriters – have proven to be the perfect choices, as they’ve made Avengers: Infinity War the most successful MCU film so far.
