"Avengers: Endgame" has made box office history by becoming the fastest-grossing film in its opening run. Endgame grossed an estimated $350 million in North America and $859 million overseas its first weekend, easily surpassing the previous opening-weekend records in both categories held by "Avengers: Infinity War" by more than 30 percent each. Endgame thus has made box office history by taking a record-breaking $1.2 billion in global ticket sales in its opening run. The Disney blockbuster became the fastest film ever to break the $1 billion barrier, doing so in just five days. At this rate, there's no telling how much Endgame will eventually make. The 2009 film Avatar currently holds the record for the highest-grossing film of all time, taking $2.79 billion in ticket receipts globally. Titanic, released in 1997, is in second place with $2.19 billion. These are monster figures but only a few stand to profit from them. All this money will go to nobody except those directly involved in making these films. It took $356 million to make Endgame. Only its actors, directors, producers and writers and anybody else associated with the film receive the profits. To millions of people, that's a lot of money going down the drain. Whatever happened to the ideals of spread the wealth, lift up the downtrodden, feed the hungry and help the destitute? Unfortunately, the capitalist concept is to come up with a product idea, sell it to a lot of willing buyers, and get rich... and apparently not share the wealth with others. US Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders had it right, but in only a limited sense. Sanders criticized Disney CEO Bob Iger's earnings and suggested the company should give all its employees big raises due to the huge profits being raked in by Endgame. "What would be truly heroic is if Disney used its profits from Avengers to pay all of its workers a middle class wage, instead of paying its CEO Bob Iger $65.6 million – over 1,400 times as much as the average worker at Disney makes," Sanders said. Sanders makes a good point but his chief concern centers on Disney workers; the broader sense is to spread the wealth far and wide, and as equally as possible. Perhaps Americans are generally not bothered by inequality because they believe with hard work, they, too, can strike it rich. Government policies aimed at spreading the wealth rarely get much support. But in the rest of the world, a multi-billion production like a movie highlights the increasing gap between the super-rich and the remainder of the globe's population. As a movie, although Endgame has received positive reviews from critics, with a 96 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it probably will not win any Oscars. It could receive an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects or at least be nominated for one. Black Panther, which was shown in Riyadh in April last year in the first public film viewing in Saudi Arabia in decades, took Best Costume Design, Best Original Score and Best Production Design. In 2018 it was the first superhero movie to receive a Best Picture nomination. To its credit, Endgame is unusually nuanced for a big-budget action movie of its kind. It is a big Hollywood franchise, and in a Hollywood franchise, things have to work out. The good guys have to win. It's what audiences want from a movie like Endgame. This is how big Hollywood films almost always operate: give the audience the fantasy of a happy ending. In the same vein, one can fantasize about how $1 billion would go a long way in building schools, hospitals, clinics, factories, pave roads, ensure clean drinking water and adequate housing, and so much more. But the money for such projects will never come from the movies. Like superhero films, there is a big difference between the fantasy world and real life pragmatism. div class=" simple-translate-button" style="background-image:url("moz-extension://1eb291e5-1d94-5949-827b-2f1c78b90df1/icons/512.png"); height:22px; left:10px; top:10px; width:22px"
