Marvel Cinematic Universe fans are going to be able to see the next big installment a little sooner than expected. Today, Marvel Studios announced that the worldwide release date of Avengers: Infinity War has been moved to April 27th, a full week in advance of the previous May 4th date.
The announcement came in the form of an exchange on Twitter, with Marvel tweeting a teaser about the film, and star Robert Downey, Jr. responding. The two accounts went back and forth — I’m not going to lie, it was pretty cute — before the new release date was formally revealed.
Any chance I could see it earlier? — Robert Downey Jr (@RobertDowneyJr) March 1, 2018
Great. With friends? — Robert Downey Jr (@RobertDowneyJr) March 1, 2018
The entire world? — Robert Downey Jr (@RobertDowneyJr) March 1, 2018
You guys wanted it. You got it. See you there April 27th. pic.twitter.com/DsllNH2ko6 — Robert Downey Jr (@RobertDowneyJr) March 1, 2018
Infinity War will kick off an extremely crowded early summer schedule, and Disney no doubt moved the release date to give the film a little more buffer, so it can rack up as many box-office dollars as possible. Fox’s Deadpool 2 is scheduled to arrive soon after Avengers on May 18th, and Disney’s own Solo: A Star Wars Story is landing just a week after that. That’s a lot of competition at the movie theater in a compressed timeframe, and while there will be plenty of interest in all three films, Marvel does arguably have a secret weapon: Infinity War will be the first Marvel film released after the stratospheric success of Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther.