Marvel Studio’s Avengers: Endgame on Wednesday shattered Taiwanese box office records by grossing NT$80 million (US$2.59 million) on its first day.
The highly anticipated movie is the highest-grossing film ever on an opening day, the highest-grossing and most-viewed film on a single day, and the highest-selling Disney movie, with the highest number of screening theaters and showtimes, among other records.
The film also grossed HK$18.6 million (US$2.37 million) in Hong Kong, surpassing last year’s, Avengers: Infinity War, in single-day and opening-day box office figures.
Screen grab from the IMDB Web site
The film is anticipated to unseat Avatar — which grossed HK$178 million in 2009 — as the highest-grossing movie ever screened in Hong Kong.
Avengers: Endgame shattered records in China, grossing 535 million yuan (US$79.28 million) on opening day, becoming the fastest movie to reach US$100 million worldwide.
Former premier William Lai (賴清德), who last month registered to run in the Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential primary, was seen watching the movie at a theater in Taipei.
Lai posted a “spoiler-free” review on Facebook, saying that fighting against the odds resonated with him and calling Captain America his favorite character.
“Marvel superheroes are people with very different personalities and difficult pasts who oftentimes found themselves at odds, but were able to unite to stand against a great crisis and fight to the best of their abilities for a common cause, not personal gain,” he said.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to