Marvel Studios delivered a monumental conclusion to their Avengers franchise and the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) longest and most star-studded movie made waves across the world. The opening weekend of Avengers: Endgame from April 26-28 brought in $1.2 billion globally, making it the highest grossing debut in cinematic history. In China, Endgame is the country’s highest grossing foreign film ever. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo and other MCU actors, the movie brings to a close a cultural phenomena that has spanned more than a decade since the first Iron Man movie in 2008. Many in the Lick community were highly invested in the film that had been a culmination of a franchise they had followed since childhood.
For Toby Taylor-Cohen ’20, the movie was all that he hoped it would be. “It was amazing! I’ve been watching all the movies since they’ve been coming out and it’s lowkey my childhood. I felt so many emotions during that movie, I was like a little boy watching all my favorite characters coming together. I don’t think they could have done it better,” Taylor-Cohen said. Amaya Guillen ’20 did not see the movie but observed the impact the movie had on her friends. The University High School spoiler prank demonstrated to Guillen how important the unveiling of the Avengers finale was. For senior prank day, University High School seniors switched places with Lick-Wilmerding seniors and during a community meeting spoiled crucial details on the latest episode of Game of Thrones and plot points of Avengers: Endgame. Guillen said, “My friends were really stressed about getting tickets and they were really overwhelmed because they did not want to get it spoiled for them, so there was a lot of anxiety and hype around the movie. Then when University came and they spoiled the movie, people were really upset, so I guess it means a lot to a lot of people. [Endgame] has been positively received and I think it was really important as an ending for a lot of people.”
