The nation has been engrossed in a worldwide phenomenon that has penetrated the far regions of the globe, influencing the economies and cultures of countries as far away as in Asia. And that phenomenon is called Avengers: Endgame.

   This latest superhero flick made roughly $60 million at the domestic box office just for its previous showings on Thursday night, making it the biggest opening night in history and beating the previous record-holder-Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) by $3 million. Fandango also reported that Endgame was the biggest preseller in its history. The movie even took in a record-breaking estimated $357 million during its opening weekend in North America, shattering expectations. It is not only breaking records in the U.S., but around world. Internationally, Endgame possessed the highest global opening weekend in film history, earning an estimated $1.2 billion in just five days. In China, the world’s second largest movie market, Endgame had the biggest opening day ever for that nation.

The obsession with the movie partly stems from the very steep cliffhanger of its predecessor: Avengers: Infinity War. As the 22nd movie in the franchise, Endgame has been shrouded in secrecy, with its cast members sworn to not reveal anything about the film’s plot or ending and not allowed to record videos behind the scenes while filming, leading fans on to believe that drastic events will take place that will likely transform the Marvel Universe forever. Trailers from the movie barely entail what is going to transpire besides the obvious fighting, humor, and action that is typical of a Marvel film. The threat of spoilers spreading on social media platforms had grown so likely that Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger star Aubrey Joseph (who plays the teenage superhero Cloak) actually warned viewers in a commercial on the TV platform Freeform to not reveal any secrets of the plot and to try to limit social media usage before seeing the movie.

The obsession has even led individuals to the darkest of all places: brutal violence in the name of fandom. According to NBC News, a Houston-area Domino’s employee named Justin Gregory Surface punched a male co-worker in the chest on April 28 because his co-worker had revealed a major plot point from Avengers: Endgame that occurs near the end of the film. Surface currently faces a misdemeanor fine of $500 because of his violent actions. A similar scenario transpired in Hong Kong, where a man was beaten for sharing spoilers outside of the theater.

Endgame has also extended its influence to the boundaries of Olympic Heights. Students across the nation have become entranced by the Marvel franchise and eager to experience each latest installment. OH junior Maleri Ginsberg saw the movie as soon as she possibly could: the Thursday evening that it made its debut to North America. She thoroughly enjoyed the film and was extremely excited to witness the grand finale, admitting, “I’ve been watching these movies for years, so it coming to some version of an ending was pretty big for me.”

To further emphasize the prevalent sense of Avengers mania, a group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) pranksters transformed the university’s Great Dome into Captain America’s shield to celebrate the movie. The students revealed to The Boston Globe that the shield was a symbol of their gratitude toward the series and that they had been working on the project for about a year.

This epic finale to the superhero studio’s decade long series of films has the longest run time of any movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, coming in at three hours and two minutes. The reviews are also extremely positive, with Rotten Tomatoes scoring it a 96 percent, IMDb a 9, Metacritic granting it a 77 percent, and 96 percent of Google users liking the movie.

To meet the extremely high demand, movie theaters around the nation added additional showtimes to accommodate more viewers. For instance, seventeen locations of AMC Theatres stayed open for 72 hours straight from Thursday to Sunday opening weekend. The Cinemark Palace in Boca Raton, had approximately 37 different showings of the film at the time as well.

How does a movie marathon sound? A handful of theaters nationwide offered a Marvel marathon of all 22 movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that lasted from Tuesday, April 23 until Endgame’s debut on Thursday night.

The television program Entertainment Tonight hosted an entire Avengers Week in the days leading up to the film’s iconic premiere, full of interviews with cast members and flashbacks dating back to the very first film in the franchise: Iron Man (2008) – the one that started it all. The anticipation was extremely high, as companies such as Geico and Audi incorporated the film in their repetitive advertisements. The extreme excitement to see the film was made particularly evident when a set of two tickets for a 3:40 p.m. showing of Endgame at the AMC Dine-In Theater Essex Green in West Orange, New Jersey on opening day (April 26) sold for $15,000. The same ticket on any other day would only cost $22. Now, that’s demonstrating wholehearted commitment.

With the hype surrounding the film, the stellar reviews, and word of mouth, it’s no wonder that the movie has dominated the box office, smashing records by collecting the most money in the shortest amount of time ever. For instance, Endgame surpassed $2.188 billion worldwide in just 11 days. It took Avatar, the previous record-holder, 47 days to reach that benchmark of two billion dollars. The movie also won the domestic box office for three weekends in a row, withstanding its first place position despite the release of the brand new flick Pokémon Detective Pikachu. The only question left is whether or not Avengers: Endgame will rise up and defeat Avatar’s decade-long global collection of $2.8 billion to become the highest grossing film of all time.

In this writer’s opinion, the film touches on everything likable in a superhero movie: action, comedy, and expression, with twists and turns that propel one’s attention throughout. It carries the moviegoer on an emotional rollercoaster ride with barely a chance to stop and catch their breaths. The ingenious use of comedy in the uncomfortable or bizarre scenes help ease some of the awkward tension that could have easily proved fatal to the film’s overall constantly-shifting tone. By emphasizing the individuality of each of its main characters, the movie serves its purpose of dawning a new light onto their strengths and weaknesses and the impact of their decisions on the fate of the world. For any superhero fan, whether or not they favor Marvel Comics, the film proves more than satisfying.