'Avengers: Endgame' tickets crush records, going for $680 on eBay

LOS ANGELES - Advance ticket sales for Marvel superhero movie "Avengers: Endgame" on Tuesday surpassed the last two "Star Wars" films, and some appeared on resale platforms with asking prices of up to US$500 (S$680) each.

Fandango and Atom - two of the top ticketing websites in the United States - said first-day advance sales for Disney's "Avengers: Endgame" surpassed the 2015 movie "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and 2017's "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" - also from Disney. They did not give sales figures.

The new Avengers movie, which brings together multiple comic book characters - including Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Thor and Ant-Man - marks the conclusion of 22 Marvel films. Fan surveys last year showed it was the most anticipated film of 2019.

"'Avengers: Endgame' sales have exceeded all expectations and surpassed 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens,' the previous record-holder, to become Fandango's top-selling title in its first 24 hours of sales, and it accomplished that feat in only 6 hours," Fandango Managing Editor Erik Davis said in a statement.

Atom said the movie has set a record for its mobile ticketing service, selling three times more tickets in the first hour than last year's "Avengers: Infinity War."

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"Avengers: Endgame" starts its movie theatre rollout on April 24 in Australia and China before arriving in the United States on April 25.

On eBay, a single ticket for a first-day IMAX screening in Hollywood was being offered for US$500. Starting bids for other tickets were around US$35 each.

Fans took to social media to complain about websites crashing, error codes and long waits to get their tickets.

"Took me 5 hours to get #AvengersEndgame tickets," tweeted Meghan Keatley.

"It's been hours and they paused the site," a fan called Bakuhoe wrote on Twitter. Five hours later Bakuhoe tweeted, "It was fun waiting with y'all, hope you all get tickets and we can suffer at the diabolical hands of Marvel together."

"Avengers: Infinity War" was the biggest movie of 2018, grossing US$2.04 billion at the worldwide box office.

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens," with a global box office of US$2.06 billion, is the third biggest movie of all time after "Avatar and "Titanic," respectively.