It's 2018 which means that there's an entirely new year out there full of new possibilities. Of course, Robert Downey Jr. wants to be sure we all have our priorities in order as 2018 really just means that there's one important thing on the way. Avengers: Infinity War, the beginning of the massive Marvel crossover event, is only about four months away, and that's what 2018 is all about.
Robert Downey Jr decided that New Year's Day was the best time to plug his forthcoming movie, by putting the Google search image of the Avengers: Infinity War release date up on Instagram. It's unlikely that most of his followers weren't already aware that the film was on the way, but it's never a bad time to do a little self-promotion.
The trailer for Avengers: Infinity War was finally released at the end of 2017 and it instantly became one of the most viewed trailers ever. The date of May 4 is burned into the memory of millions of movie fans. You can expect that tickets for opening night will sell out as soon as they're available. It's got to be the favorite for being the box office winner for 2018.
You can tell just how big Avengers: Infinity War is expected to be by looking at the rest of the release calendar for May 2018 compared to 2017. When Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was released on the same weekend last year, it was followed by other big-budget films like Alien: Covenant and Guy Ritchie's King Arthur movie. The May schedule for this year is essentially empty between the release of Infinity War and Memorial Day weekend. Nobody wants to challenge the massive Marvel movie. The next big release comes during the holiday weekend, and it's another Disney film, Solo: A Star Wars Story.
The hype is almost unnecessary, which is not to say that seeing Robert Downey Jr. post about the film doesn't get me more than a little hyped for Infinity War. It's almost hard to believe that the movie is as close as it is. When the trailer was released it seemed so far away, but with it arriving at the very beginning of May, it's only a few short months away, it will be here before we know it. The follow-up, Avengers 4 will arrive almost exactly a year later. That will make the close of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase 3, and will likely launch whatever is set to come next. We know to expect a more cosmic focused MCU, but which characters will take center stage in it is, at this point, anybody's guess.
