'Avengers: Endgame' tickets crush records, going for $500 on eBay

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 $500 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.'
'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 $500. Starting bids for other tickets were around $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 $2.04 billion at the worldwide box office.

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