In keeping with tradition, Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy shared a note of congratulations late last night in honor of Avengers: Infinity War, which supplanted The Force Awakens to become the biggest opening weekend of all time.
This back-and-forth between Lucasfilm and its fellow movie studios dates back to 1977, when the great Steven Speilberg took out a full-page ad in Variety (see below) to acknowledge the fact that Star Wars had officially outstripped Jaws at the box office.
Some years later, Marvel Studios raised a glass to Universal and Jurassic World, in particular, which overtook Joss Whedon’s Avengers movie at the domestic box office back in 2015. Three years later, and the MCU has been crowned king once more, after Infinity War‘s global total climbed to $641 million – $258 million of which was collected from North America – making it the biggest opening weekend in history. And we struggle to see how another film will top that immense, eye-watering figure anytime soon.
Here’s a collection of those baton-passing posters, beginning with Lucasfilm’s congratulatory one-sheet, which sees Rey pass the lightsaber to the outstretched hand of Tony Stark:
Pretty cool, eh? The question, really, is whether Star Wars can possibly wrangle the crown back off Marvel, particularly now that Infinity War is well on its way to becoming the box office success story of 2018.
This month’s Solo: A Star Wars Story will likely post solid numbers – similar to Rogue One, we imagine – but it’ll take something truly special to reach the dizzying heights of Avengers: Infinity War. In fact, the only real contender that springs to mind is its untitled sequel, which isn’t expected to arrive until May of 2019.
