There are many reasons to believe Marvel’s latest superhero movie will be a huge box office success. The Avengers is one of the most popular movie franchises of all time. Avengers: Infinity War combines the past decade of 18 movies in the Marvel cinematic universe into one film. It’s slated to arrive in more than 4,470 theaters over the weekend, the largest opening for any movie ever, except Despicable Me 3.
Also notable: it was released in April.
Superhero movies have been traditionally released in summer months. Half of the 123 superhero movies released since 1978 opened in May, June, or July, according to a Quartz analysis of data from Box Office Mojo.
The release strategy has generated outsized box-office receipts. Nearly all of the highest-grossing superhero films opened in May, June, or July. The only two exceptions are Black Panther, which opened in February 2018, and Superman, in December 1978.
With “Avengers: Infinity War” superhero season comes sooner
In recent years, however, there’s a clear winner among the three months: May has outpaced June and July in both the number of movies released and ticket sales.
May has lower competition for screen space–big animated features do not come out until the middle of May at the earliest. Spring releases also benefit from being able to be shown in theaters throughout the summer, a further guarantee for enduring performance at the box office.
Marvel has already acted. In its 2015 to 2019 release schedule, the movies with the biggest budgets are lined up for the beginning of May. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) all opened in the first week of the month.
Avengers: Infinity War follows the trend but even more aggressively, with executives picking the last weekend in April to try to maximize ticket sales. The film officially opened on April 27.