Joe Russo Makes Endgame Encore Required Viewing for Doomsday

Joe Russo told ticket buyers that Avengers Endgame: Encore is required viewing for Avengers: Doomsday. The recut opens Sept. 25 at 185 minutes, about four minutes longer than the 2019 film, and a special end tag plays only in IMAX and Disney’s Infinity Vision houses.

Doomsday already has $35 million in advance tickets for Dec. 18, on screens Disney certified after it lost IMAX to Dune: Part Three. The homework assignment is also a format drill.

Four Extra Minutes in a Three-Hour Cut

Marvel is not sending the 2019 file back out under the old name. The studio retitled the booking Avengers Endgame: Encore and built a short new layer on top of a film that still holds $2.79 billion worldwide, just behind Avatar at $2.9 billion.

The Encore clock, listed at 185 minutes, adds about four minutes of footage that was not in the original theatrical cut. Disney also attached an exclusive look at Doomsday to every Encore screening. The official Encore trailer from Marvel sells that peek as the reason to buy a ticket even if the Snap, the time heist, and “Avengers assemble” are already muscle memory.

Robert Downey Jr. now plays Doctor Doom. Chris Evans is back as Steve Rogers after a 2019 ending that was written as a close. Anthony Russo, who directed both films with his brother, put the tease in one line: “If you saw Endgame when it was originally released, you couldn’t see this coming.”

Four minutes is a small graft on a three-hour film. Russo is asking people to treat that graft as the on-ramp for the next Avengers movie anyway.

The End Tag Stays Inside Premium Auditoriums

Not every Encore seat gets the same package. Disney said from the CineEurope stage that a custom introduction, additional new footage, and a special end tag are exclusive to Infinity Vision and IMAX. Marvel’s trailer splits the Doomsday material the same way: one exclusive look in every house, and an extra sneak peek only on those giant screens.

TWO TIERS OF ENCORE EXTRAS

That split is the catch inside Russo’s “required” line. He told people to see Endgame in theaters again. The connective tissue Disney advertised, including the end tag, sits in the premium rooms. A regular Encore ticket gets you the longer cut and one look at December. The version the studio described as the full event asks for an IMAX or Infinity Vision seat.

Encore tickets for IMAX and Infinity Vision went on sale with the trailer on Aug. 25. Marvel Studios said on Sept. 1 that more tickets had been added. The first wave was already aimed at the rooms carrying the extra tag.

Disney Built a Badge After Losing IMAX

Infinity Vision is not a new camera system. It is a studio badge on large auditoriums that already exist, rolled out because Doomsday and Dune: Part Three share Dec. 18 and Warner Bros. locked U.S. IMAX screens for the first three weeks. Endgame can still play IMAX in September. Doomsday cannot, at least not at the start.

Disney theatrical distribution head Andrew Cripps said the badge is there so audiences can “quickly find the very best screens in their area.” IMAX chief financial officer Natasha Fernandes called the project “a marketing play to try and offset the fact that they don’t have an IMAX platform or brand for Avengers: Doomsday.”

The April 16 CinemaCon launch put over 75 domestic and 300 global premium large-format houses on the map as the kind of rooms Disney wanted. By June 24, more than 7,500 screens worldwide had applied for the mark, and the studio was still checking them ahead of Sept. 25. Cinemark later said its XD and ScreenX rooms would carry the badge, which is the point: Infinity Vision labels gear exhibitors already own.

INFINITY VISION SCREEN RULES

• Screen size: Official rules ask for screens at least 45 feet wide, so the badge is not meant for a standard multiplex box.
• Sound: Houses need immersive audio such as Dolby Atmos, or a 7.1 system, which leaves room for very different rooms under one name.
• Brightness: Projection must hit 14 footlamberts in 2D or 6 footlamberts in 3D, a floor aimed at a bright image on a wide wall.
• First titles: Endgame Encore and Doomsday are the first films booked into certified rooms, with more titles due after.

Premium large-format screens can account for about 40 percent of a tentpole opening in North America. Toy Story 5 took in nearly $64 million of its $159.6 million opening from those auditoriums. Disney is trying to keep that share without IMAX’s name on the Doomsday one-sheet. The Encore extras are the sample pack.

Required Viewing Now Means Buying Endgame Again

Russo did not describe the Encore as optional nostalgia. He told Fandango the recut would “connect the story of the two movies,” then put a homework label on it.

There’s a natural progression from Endgame into Doomsday, which is also inclusive of all the other stories that have been playing out. But I think it’s important to see Endgame again in theaters for two reasons: One, you’re going to have a lot of fun … and two, I think it’s required viewing for following the story in Doomsday.

Joe Russo, director, to Fandango

Anthony and Joe Russo break down what fans can expect to see in Avengers Endgame: Encore.

Tickets are on sale NOW! Assemble your friends, and get your tickets now👇 https://t.co/CgcsDpHycS pic.twitter.com/AaFAk5c1rf

— Fandango (@Fandango) August 25, 2026

That is a strong claim for about four minutes and a tag you may not see unless you pick the right screen. The louder problem is the runtime math. A three-hour reunion can still be a blast in a packed house. Calling it required for Doomsday asks those four minutes, or the premium-only tag, to carry plot that seven years of movies apparently did not finish.

People booking the Encore are not behaving like students. They talk about crying on cue and walking in as if they had never seen the Snap. Russo is selling a study hall. The crowd is buying a midnight-style singalong, with a December trailer stapled to the credits if they pay for the giant screen.

$35 Million Is Already Down on Doomsday

The required-viewing pitch lands on an audience that has already bought December. Tracker Global Box Office put Doomsday past $35 million in presales on Aug. 19, earlier than any other film has hit that number, with the opening still four months away.

Tickets first went out July 20 with the trailer, and only for premium formats in about 1,000 U.S. theaters. That first day did $16.5 million, with Thursday Dec. 17 and Friday Dec. 18 premium shows largely sold out. Wide sales opened later, and Doomsday is due on more than 4,000 North American screens. Global Box Office has the domestic opening in a range of $260 million to $300 million.

THE ADVANCE TALLY NEXT TO THE RECORDS

Brand New Day did not sell tickets until 45 days out and still opened at $360 million. Doomsday has been on sale since July, without IMAX at launch, against Dune: Part Three on the same Friday. Those $35 million buyers now hear that a September recut of Endgame is required if they want to follow a movie they already paid for.

How Marvel Walked Back the No-Homework Line?

Early in the Doomsday campaign the Russos talked about a fresh start, the kind of entry that would not demand a spreadsheet of Disney+ titles. Then the studio pushed people back toward older chapters, and Russo put Endgame itself on the required list, in theaters, with new footage.

The Encore is a cleaner ask than a 20-show binge, and a harder one than pressing play at home. You already own Endgame. The new minutes and the tag are the only reason to stand in a concession line in September, and Disney parked the fullest version of that extra material on the same premium circuit it needs in December.

THE ROAD FROM A BADGE TO A REQUIRED CUT

1. April 16, 2026: Disney launches Infinity Vision at CinemaCon as a premium-screen badge, with Endgame’s September return and Doomsday named as the first titles.
2. June 24, 2026: At CineEurope the studio retitles the booking Avengers Endgame: Encore, says more than 7,500 screens have applied, and reserves a custom intro, new footage, and an end tag for Infinity Vision and IMAX.
3. July 20, 2026: Doomsday tickets go on sale for premium formats in about 1,000 U.S. theaters and take in $16.5 million the first day.
4. August 25, 2026: Marvel posts the Encore trailer and opens IMAX and Infinity Vision tickets for Sept. 25.
5. August 27, 2026: Joe Russo tells Fandango the Encore is required viewing for following Doomsday.
6. September 1, 2026: Marvel Studios says additional Encore tickets are available.
7. September 25, 2026: Endgame Encore opens.
8. December 18, 2026: Doomsday opens against Dune: Part Three, without IMAX for the first three weeks.

By the time Russo assigned the reading, millions of dollars in Doomsday seats were already gone. The Encore is late homework for people who thought they had already enrolled.

Bucky Shot Scattered Scenes Without the Full Script

Bucky Barnes actor Sebastian Stan said he left Doomsday without a full script in his hands. “I know absolutely nothing about it,” he said. “Because we didn’t have a script. We were just shooting scattered scenes.” Producers, he said, “didn’t want us to read it in its entirety, to avoid journalists asking us questions.”

Marvel has worked that way for years. Stan called it familiar. It still sits oddly beside a director telling the public that a 2019 recut is required. The people on set were handed pieces. The people in the seats are told the missing piece is four minutes in a premium house in September.

Encore opens in the United States on Sept. 25. Doomsday follows on Dec. 18, without IMAX for its first three weeks, on the Infinity Vision screens the Encore is meant to introduce. The four minutes, and the tag behind the upcharge, will have to do the work Russo assigned them.