The Avengers (2012 film)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Avengers opened on the 4th of May 2012, in the United States, and within 19 days it had passed $1 billion in ticket sales, matching a record previously held by Avatar and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. No Marvel film had ever done that before. By the time the numbers were final, it had earned $1.519 billion worldwide, making it the third-highest-grossing film of all time at that point and the highest-grossing film of the year.

  But the story of how this film got made is as tangled and unlikely as the team it put on screen. Seven years of negotiations, a near-complete rewrite, an actor replaced mid-development, a canceled video game, a director who arrived and declared the studio had "nothing" to work with. The questions worth asking are not just how much money it made. They are: who actually shaped this film, what it almost was, and why a movie about people who could not stand each other managed to make audiences feel something.

• 2. A Long Road to Assembly

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  Avi Arad, then CEO of Marvel Studios, first announced plans for an Avengers film in April 2005, the same month Marvel Enterprises declared independence by aligning with Merrill Lynch to produce a slate of films to be distributed by Paramount Pictures. The studio's logic was specific: release individual films for each major character first, build familiarity, and only then bring them together in a crossover.

  Screenwriter Zak Penn, who wrote The Incredible Hulk, became attached to the project in 2006 and was formally hired in June 2007. After Iron Man succeeded in May 2008, Marvel set a July 2011 release date. The original plan had Bruce Banner played by Edward Norton, who had taken the role in The Incredible Hulk. In October 2008, casting for the broader ensemble began with Robert Downey Jr.'s signing.

  The year 2009 brought rapid changes. Scarlett Johansson replaced Emily Blunt as Natasha Romanoff in March. Samuel L. Jackson signed a nine-picture deal with Marvel Entertainment in February to play Nick Fury. Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston joined the cast in June as Thor and Loki. The day after Johansson's casting was announced, Marvel pushed the release date back nearly a full year to the 4th of May 2012.

  By July 2010, Ruffalo had been confirmed to replace Norton. Marvel's statement explaining the decision, issued by Kevin Feige, cited the need for an actor who "embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit" of the ensemble, language that Norton's agent publicly called "purposefully misleading." Norton himself later said in October 2014 that it was his own choice, wanting more diversity in his career rather than being associated with a single character.

• 3. Whedon Takes the Wheel

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  By April 2010, Joss Whedon was close to signing a deal to direct and rewrite Penn's script. His official announcement came in July 2010. Avi Arad called Whedon someone who "loves these characters" and would "protect" them. Kevin Feige described the search as looking for a director "on the verge of doing something great."

  Whedon's response to Penn's draft was stark. He told Feige the studio did not "have anything" and that they should "pretend this draft never happened." His core objection was a lack of character connections. He started over, writing a five-page treatment and creating the working tagline "Avengers: Some Assembly Required," a riff on the comic books' "Avengers Assemble" slogan.

  Marvel placed only a few constraints on Whedon: include the Avengers against Loki, stage a battle among the heroes in the middle, end with a battle against the villains, and finish the film by May 2012. Within those limits, the script went through, in Whedon's words, "a lot of insane iterations of what might be." At one point, uncertain whether Johansson would appear, he wrote a substantial stretch of pages featuring The Wasp and wanted Zooey Deschanel to play the character. Concerned that Hiddleston alone was not enough of a villain, he drafted a version that included Ezekiel Stane, Obadiah Stane's son from Iron Man.

  Whedon compared the team dynamic to The Dirty Dozen (1967) and also drew on Dr. Strangelove (1964), The Abyss (1989), His Girl Friday (1940), and Black Hawk Down (2001) as reference points. He would ultimately share screenplay credit with Penn, though Whedon said he "fought" for sole credit and was "very upset" about the outcome. Penn stated the two "could have collaborated more, but that was not his choice."

  The working title for principal photography was Group Hug.

• 4. Casting and Characters

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  Robert Downey Jr. earned $50 million from the film once box-office bonuses and backend compensation were included. His deal with Marvel covered four pictures, including Iron Man 2. He initially pushed Whedon to make Stark the lead character, telling him, "I need to be in the opening sequence. I don't know what you're thinking, but Tony needs to drive this thing." They tried it. It did not work. Downey later described the ensemble as "everybody is just an arm of the octopus."

  Chris Evans earned $2-3 million for the film, as did Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Jeremy Renner. Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson each earned $4-6 million. Evans described Rogers in The Avengers as darker than in his solo film, a man who woke up to find that everyone he knew was dead. He described the Rogers-Stark dynamic as two polar opposites forced to coexist: "One guy is flash and spotlight and smooth, and the other guy is selfless and in the shadows."

  Mark Ruffalo's casting as Banner was notable in one specific way: this was the first production in which the actor playing Banner also played the Hulk through motion capture. The 3D model for the Hulk's body was based on Long Island bodybuilder and male stripper Steve Romm, while Ruffalo's face shaped the Hulk's facial features. For the voice, Ruffalo's recordings were combined with those of Lou Ferrigno and others. The sole speaking line, "Puny god," was provided entirely by Ruffalo himself.

  Tom Hiddleston reflected on Loki's state at the film's opening: having disappeared through a wormhole created by a "super nuclear explosion of his own making," the character had, as Hiddleston put it, "seen a few things." Hiddleston framed Loki's goal as that of "all the delusional autocrats of human history" who believed ruling others would bring them self-respect.

  Cobie Smulders was cast as Maria Hill in February 2011 after screen tests. She had previously been considered by Whedon for a Wonder Woman film that never progressed. Morena Baccarin, Jessica Lucas, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead were also considered for the role. Gwyneth Paltrow's inclusion happened at Downey's insistence; Whedon had not originally planned to bring in supporting characters from the heroes' individual films.

• 5. Filming Across America

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  Principal photography began on the 25th of April 2011, at Albuquerque Studios in New Mexico. Production had originally been planned for Los Angeles, then New York, before landing in Albuquerque, as Whedon explained. In June 2011, stuntman Jeremy Fitzgerald sustained a head injury attempting a stunt involving a 30-foot fall after being struck by an arrow. He recovered and returned to work on set.

  The production moved to Cleveland, Ohio in August 2011, where filming spanned four weeks. East 9th Street stood in for New York City's 42nd Street. Army Reserve soldiers from the 391st Military Police Battalion, based in Columbus, Ohio, participated in the background action. Staff Sergeant Michael T. Landis noted their presence allowed on-the-spot corrections to tactics and uniforms.

  Ohio provided several other locations. The NASA Plum Brook Station near Sandusky, specifically its Space Power Facility, doubled as a S.H.I.E.L.D. research facility. The Chevrolet powertrain plant in Parma, Ohio served as a location for explosions in the battle sequence. Public Square in Cleveland was transformed into Stuttgart, Germany.

  Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey chose a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, an unusual choice for a large-scale action film. The reason was practical: the varying heights of the main characters, from the Hulk down to Black Widow, required vertical space in the frame. McGarvey also wanted the height of Manhattan's buildings to read properly in the climax. This film marked his first experience with a digital camera, the Arri Alexa. High-speed shots were captured on 35 mm film using the Arriflex 435.

  The final stage of production moved to New York City. Visual effects supervisor Jake Morrison spent more than three days shooting aerial footage of Manhattan for use as background plates. The film ultimately contained more than 2,200 visual effects shots, completed by 14 companies. Industrial Light and Magic served as the lead vendor, recreating approximately ten city blocks by four city blocks of the New York cityscape. To build that digital environment, ILM sent four photographers on an eight-week shoot to capture reference imagery.

• 6. Score, Effects, and Post-Production

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  Alan Silvestri, who had scored Captain America: The First Avenger, was announced as the composer in November 2011. He worked with the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London. Silvestri described the challenge of giving each character "the weight and consideration they need" while also representing the team as a unified entity. Whedon praised the score as "very old-fashioned," calling Silvestri "letter-perfect" for the film.

  In March 2012, the Indian rock band Agnee released a music video for their single "Hello Andheron" as the theme song for the Indian release of the film.

  In December 2011, Disney announced the film would be converted to 3D. Whedon was not opposed, saying the technology suited his aesthetic preference for seeing the space he was working in. Disney also confirmed in January 2012 that the film would be digitally remastered for IMAX 3D, opening the same day as its regular release.

  The film originally received an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America because of Phil Coulson's death scene. That scene was edited to secure a PG-13 rating.

  The post-credits shawarma scene was filmed on the 12th of April 2012, one day after the world premiere. Whedon drew the idea from the aftermath of filming a scene on his television series Angel, where he and actors Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof went out after a particularly draining shoot and "ended up just sitting around quietly, exhausted from the day's events." Chris Evans wore a prosthetic jaw during the shawarma shoot to conceal a beard he had grown for another project. Following the film's release, shawarma sales in Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Boston reportedly surged.

  Whedon revealed in a May 2012 interview that he personally chose to include Thanos in the post-credits scene, citing his love of Avengers Annual no. 7 from 1977 by Jim Starlin and Marvel Two-in-One Annual no. 2, also from 1977, as among the most important and underrated milestones in Marvel's publishing history.

• 7. Box Office and Records

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  The Avengers grossed $623.4 million in the United States and Canada and $895.5 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $1.519 billion. Its worldwide opening weekend of $392.5 million ranked as the fourth-largest on record at the time. The film reached $1 billion in 19 days, matching the pace previously set by Avatar and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

  In North America, the opening weekend earned $207,438,708 across around 11,800 screens in 4,349 theaters. That included an $18.7 million midnight run, a record for a superhero film. Saturday's gross was $69.6 million and Sunday's was $57.1 million, both records at the time. The second weekend brought in $103.1 million, the largest second-weekend gross on record. May 2012's total of $532.5 million represented 52% of all domestic box office for that month.

  Internationally, the film opened on April 25 in 10 countries, earning $17.1 million. By its first full weekend across 39 countries, it had accumulated $185.1 million. Its leading international markets were China at $83 million, the United Kingdom at $80.5 million, Brazil at $63.9 million, Mexico at $61.7 million, and Australia at $54.5 million. In the United Kingdom, it set an opening-weekend record for a superhero film and became the market's highest-grossing superhero film overall. In Latin America, it became the first film to surpass $200 million total.

  The film's $220 million production cost was recouped 12 days after release. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare A+ grade. Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus credited the script for "emphasizing its heroes' humanity." In 2017, Empire magazine included The Avengers in a poll of the 100 greatest films of all time. The film received a nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 85th Academy Awards.

  In July 2024, a Lakota language dub became available on Disney+. Ruffalo, who had a prior relationship with the Lakota people and wanted to support efforts to revitalize their language, spearheaded the project. All six lead cast members re-recorded their lines for the dub.