Because our pop culture is so ephemeral these days and the summer movie season is highly competitive, Avengers: Endgame made a huge splash on its opening weekend, but its pace has slowed considerably in the seven weeks since it was released. It’s just about $45 million shy of beating Avatar as the highest-grossing worldwide release of all-time, and Disney isn’t going to let that stand to come so close and miss the title.

Speaking to ComicBook, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige revealed that Endgame will be re-released into theaters with some new footage. “We are doing that,” Feige said of an Endgame re-release with new footage. “I don’t know if it’s been announced. And I don’t know how much… Yeah, we’re doing it next weekend.”

Next weekend is probably the ideal slot for Endgame’s re-release, although Disney’s aversion to re-releasing its home titles has reared its head again. Yes, it’s a smart move to re-release Endgame less than a week before Spider-Man: Far From Home comes out. It will almost certainly generate enough business to edge it past Avatar at the worldwide box office. However, I’d counter that what would be even better than a few minutes of new footage (I seriously doubt they’re going to make a 3-hour movie significantly longer) is to simply re-release both Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame and make that a bit of an event in and of itself where fans can see the whole two-part saga back-to-back. But I suppose the counterpoint there is that it’s harder to get in more screenings of Endgame that way, and if your eye is on beating Avatar, you need as many Endgame screenings as possible.

The question now becomes whether or not the new footage is really worth it. The Russos made their cuts for a reason, so I doubt there’s anything essential that’s being re-added to the picture. But for die-hard fans who want to see everything Endgame has to offer, they’ll likely be making another trek to the theater.

via Collider