Avengers: Endgame

The re-release of Marvel's Avengers: Endgame with some added scenes, billed in China as Avengers Endgame: Encore, was leading China's Mid-Autumn Festival holiday box office, helping push total ticket sales for the three-day holidays above 270 million yuan ($40.2 million) and warming up the country's movie market ahead of the longer National Day holidays.

The 2026 Mid-Autumn Festival movie period, which ran from Friday to Sunday, surpassed the 250 million yuan recorded during the same holiday period in 2025, according to data from Chinese box office tracker Maoyan.

Avengers Endgame: Encore, Once Upon A Time in the Middle East and All Wishes Come True! ranked among the top three films at the holiday box office. Avengers Endgame: Encore had taken in more than 83 million yuan as of press time since it hit theaters on the Chinese mainland on Friday.

Maoyan projects that the re-release will gross around 200 million yuan at the Chinese box office.

The film, originally released in 2019, returns to Chinese mainland theaters with about five minutes of newly added footage, bringing its total run time to 186 minutes, compared with 181 minutes for the original version.

The new edition is being shown in a range of premium theater formats, including IMAX, Dolby Cinema, CINITY and China Giant Screen, with audiences able to choose between 2D and 3D versions.

Avengers: Endgame was a major box office phenomenon when it was first released in 2019, eventually grossing $2.799 billion worldwide.

The added material also provides connections to Marvel's upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, which is scheduled for release on December 18. The re-release therefore serves not only as a chance for fans to revisit one of the franchise's most successful films, but also as a way to generate interest in the next chapter of the series.

Lin Xiao, a longtime Marvel fan in Beijing, watched Avengers: Endgame with friends when it was first released in 2019. She has since watched the movie several times on streaming platforms, and returned to a theater after learning that the re-release would include new footage.

"I have watched it many times since 2019, but the audiovisual experience in a movie theater is something streaming platforms cannot really replace," Lin told the Global Times after watching the film on Saturday. The newly added post-credits Easter eggs related to Avengers: Doomsday also made her even more excited to see the next installment.

For longtime fans, the re-release offers a combination of old and new, while also allowing Marvel to reconnect with audiences ahead of the next Avengers installment.

"In the case of Avengers: Endgame, newly added material tied to Avengers: Doomsday turns the re-release into more than a nostalgic screening, giving Marvel an opportunity to build anticipation for its next film," Zhang Peng, a cultural researcher and associate professor at Nanjing Normal University, told the Global Times.

The performance of other films during the holidays has also contributed to the rise in box office sales.

Once Upon A Time in the Middle East and All Wishes Come True! had previously seen solid box-office results and positive audience feedback, and their good performances continued during the Mid-Autumn Festival period.

This year's three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holidays, compared with just one day in 2025, has provided a longer window for movie-going. A lineup of popular domestic and international releases also helped drive ticket sales, according to Zhang.

The holidays also come ahead of China's National Day holidays (October 1 to 7), one of the country's busiest periods for movie-going. The close proximity of the two holidays this year is bringing a large number of new domestic and international productions to theaters within a relatively short period.

According to Maoyan, more than 20 Chinese and foreign films are scheduled to be released during the combined Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday period. The films span a range of genres, including suspense, comedy, romance and animation.

Among the domestic productions are The Old Dog and Traces of Justice, while family-oriented animated films and imported blockbusters are also expected to compete for audiences.

The rising attendance during the Mid-Autumn Festival period is giving the market an early boost ahead of the National Day holidays, noted Zhang. With a mix of domestic productions, imported blockbusters and family-oriented titles competing for audiences, the two holiday periods are expected to form an important window for China's movie market as the industry heads into the final quarter of the year. 

China's total box office for the year has surpassed 29.5 billion yuan as of Sunday.