title: Daredevil (TV series)

text: Ahead of the release of season three, "Deadline Hollywood" noted the series was expected to be renewed for a fourth season since it was "widely watched and critically acclaimed". Oleson pitched what he wanted to do with a fourth season to Netflix in November 2018, and was hoping that this meeting would lead to an official renewal of the series. Despite the pitch, on November 29, 2018, Netflix canceled the series after three seasons. Netflix said the three seasons would remain on the service, while the character would "live on in future projects for Marvel". "Deadline Hollywood" noted, that "unlike "Iron Fist" or "Luke Cage", the door seems to be wide open" for the series to continue elsewhere, potentially on Disney's streaming service, Disney+. However, "The Hollywood Reporter" felt this was unlikely, especially since, per the original deal between Marvel and Netflix for the series, the characters cannot appear in any non-Netflix series or films for at least two years following the cancellation of "Daredevil", as reported by "Variety". Kevin A. Mayer, chairman of Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International, noted that, while it had not yet been discussed, it was a possibility that Disney+ could revive the series.


title: Daredevil (TV series)

text: Cox was saddened by the cancellation, since it "felt like we had a lot of stories to tell", especially since he had been excited by what had been discussed for a potential fourth season. He added that many of the cast and crew "really expected to keep going" and that he was hopeful there would be an opportunity to portray the character again in some form. Amy Rutberg, who portrays Marci Stahl in the series, confirmed the two-year wait requirement and also said the decision to cancel the series came as a surprise to the executives at Marvel given the extensive work that had been done for a potential fourth season. She added that filming for the fourth season had been expected to begin around February 2019 and that many of the cast and crew felt the series would last for five seasons, with a new antagonist in the fourth before a final showdown between Daredevil and Fisk in the fifth. That same month, Hulu's senior vice president of originals Craig Erwich said that the streaming service was open to reviving the series, along with the other former Netflix series.


title: Daredevil (TV series)

text: In June 2020, Cox was contacted by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige about reprising his role in Marvel Studios' MCU productions, with Feige confirming in December 2021 that Cox would reprise the role for Marvel Studios, first doing so in the film "" (2021). Additionally, D'Onofrio first reprised his role as Kingpin in the Disney+ series "Hawkeye" (2021). At that time, Jessica Henwick, who portrayed Colleen Wing in the Marvel Netflix series, indicated that Cox had known about the opportunity to reprise the role in Marvel Studios productions years prior.


title: Daredevil (TV series)

text: In March 2022, "Production Weekly" included a "Daredevil" reboot in their report of upcoming projects in development, with Feige and Chris Gary listed as producers. The series was confirmed to be in development for Disney+ in late May, with Matt Corman and Chris Ord attached as head writers and executive producers. The series, titled "Daredevil: Born Again", was officially announced that July for an 18-episode first season, with Cox and D'Onofrio confirmed to return. It is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ in early 2024. Cox described "Born Again" as a "whole new thing" and not a fourth season of the Netflix series.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by the American author Harper Lee. It was published in 1960 and was instantly successful. In the United States, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. "To Kill a Mockingbird" has become a classic of modern American literature, winning the Pulitzer Prize. The plot and characters are loosely based on Lee's observations of her family, her neighbors and an event that occurred near her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, in 1936, when she was ten.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality, the novel is renowned for its warmth and humor. Atticus Finch, the narrator's father, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. The historian Joseph Crespino explains, "In the twentieth century, "To Kill a Mockingbird" is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its main character, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism." As a Southern Gothic novel and "Bildungsroman", the primary themes of "To Kill a Mockingbird" involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the Deep South. The book is widely taught in schools in the United States with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice. Despite its themes, "To Kill a Mockingbird" has been subject to campaigns for removal from public classrooms, often challenged for its use of racial epithets. In 2006, British librarians ranked the book ahead of the Bible as one "every adult should read before they die".


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Reaction to the novel varied widely upon publication. Despite the number of copies sold and its widespread use in education, literary analysis of it is sparse. Author Mary McDonough Murphy, who collected individual impressions of "To Kill a Mockingbird" by several authors and public figures, calls the book "an astonishing phenomenon". It was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film in 1962 by director Robert Mulligan, with a screenplay by Horton Foote. Since 1990, a play based on the novel has been performed annually in Harper Lee's hometown.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: "To Kill a Mockingbird" was Lee's only published book until "Go Set a Watchman", an earlier draft of "To Kill a Mockingbird", was published on July 14, 2015. Lee continued to respond to her work's impact until her death in February 2016, although she had refused any personal publicity for herself or the novel since 1964.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Born in 1926, Harper Lee grew up in the Southern town of Monroeville, Alabama, where she became close friends with soon-to-be-famous writer Truman Capote. She attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery (1944–45), and then studied law at the University of Alabama (1945–49). While attending college, she wrote for campus literary magazines: "Huntress" at Huntingdon and the humor magazine "Rammer Jammer" at the University of Alabama. At both colleges, she wrote short stories and other works about racial injustice, a rarely mentioned topic on such campuses at the time. In 1950, Lee moved to New York City, where she worked as a reservation clerk for British Overseas Airways Corporation; there, she began writing a collection of essays and short stories about people in Monroeville. Hoping to be published, Lee presented her writing in 1957 to a literary agent recommended by Capote. An editor at J. B. Lippincott, who bought the manuscript, advised her to quit the airline and concentrate on writing.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Donations from friends allowed her to write uninterrupted for a year. After finishing the first draft and returning it to Lippincott, the manuscript, at that point titled "Go Set a Watchman", fell into the hands of Therese von Hohoff Torrey, known professionally as Tay Hohoff. Hohoff was impressed, "[T]he spark of the true writer flashed in every line," she would later recount in a corporate history of Lippincott, but as Hohoff saw it, the manuscript was by no means fit for publication. It was, as she described it, "more a series of anecdotes than a fully conceived novel." During the following two and a half years, she led Lee from one draft to the next until the book finally achieved its finished form.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: After the "Watchman" title was rejected, it was re-titled "Atticus" but Lee renamed it "To Kill a Mockingbird" to reflect that the story went beyond a character portrait. The book was published on July 11, 1960. The editorial team at Lippincott warned Lee that she would probably sell only several thousand copies. In 1964, Lee recalled her hopes for the book when she said,


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: I never expected any sort of success with 'Mockingbird.' ... I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Instead of a "quick and merciful death", "Reader's Digest Condensed Books" chose the book for reprinting in part, which gave it a wide readership immediately. Since the original publication, the book has never been out of print.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: The story, told by the six-year-old Jean Louise Finch, takes place during three years (1933–35) of the Great Depression in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, the seat of Maycomb County. Nicknamed Scout, she lives with her older brother Jeremy, nicknamed Jem, and their widowed father Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer. They also have a black cook, Calpurnia, who had been with the family for many years and helped Atticus raise the two children.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who visits Maycomb to stay with his aunt each summer. The three children are terrified, yet fascinated by their neighbor, the reclusive Arthur "Boo" Radley. The adults of Maycomb are hesitant to talk about Boo, and few of them have seen him for many years. The children feed one another's imagination with rumors about his appearance and reasons for remaining hidden, and they fantasize about how to get him out of his house. After two summers of friendship with Dill, Scout and Jem find that someone is leaving them small gifts in a tree outside the Radley place. Several times the mysterious Boo makes gestures of affection to the children, but, to their disappointment, he never appears in person.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Judge Taylor appoints Atticus to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. Although many of Maycomb's citizens disapprove, Atticus agrees to defend Tom to the best of his ability. Other children taunt Jem and Scout for Atticus's actions, calling him a "nigger-lover". Scout is tempted to stand up for her father's honor by fighting, even though he has told her not to. One night, Atticus faces a group of men intent on lynching Tom. This crisis is averted in an unexpected manner: Scout, Jem, and Dill show up, and Scout inadvertently breaks the mob mentality by recognizing and talking to a classmate's father, and the would-be lynchers disperse.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Atticus does not want Jem and Scout to be present at Tom Robinson's trial. No seat is available on the main floor, but the Rev. Sykes, the pastor of Calpurnia's church, invites Jem, Scout, and Dill to watch from the colored balcony. Atticus establishes that Mayella and Bob Ewell are lying. It is revealed that Mayella made sexual advances toward Tom, subsequently resulting in her being beaten by her father. The townspeople refer to the Ewells as "white trash" who are not to be trusted, but the jury convicts Tom regardless. Jem's faith in justice is badly shaken. Atticus is hopeful that he can get the verdict overturned, but Tom is shot 17 times and killed while trying to escape from prison.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Despite Tom's conviction, Bob Ewell is humiliated by the events of the trial. Atticus explained that he destroyed Ewell's last shred of credibility. Ewell vows revenge, spitting in Atticus' face, trying to break into the judge's house and menacing Tom Robinson's widow. Finally, he attacks Jem and Scout while they are walking home on a dark night after the school Halloween pageant. Jem suffers a broken arm in the struggle, but amid the confusion, someone comes to the children's rescue. The mysterious man carries Jem home, where Scout realizes that he is Boo Radley.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Sheriff Tate arrives and discovers Ewell dead from a knife wound. Atticus believes that Jem was responsible, but Tate is certain it was Boo. The sheriff decides that, to protect Boo's privacy, he will report that Ewell simply fell on his own knife during the attack. Boo asks Scout to walk him home. After she says goodbye to him at his front door, he disappears, never to be seen again by Scout. While standing on the Radley porch, Scout imagines life from Boo's perspective.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Lee said that "To Kill a Mockingbird" is not an autobiography, but rather an example of how an author "should write about what he knows and write truthfully". Nevertheless, several people and events from Lee's childhood parallel those of the fictional Scout. Amasa Coleman Lee, Lee's father, was an attorney similar to Atticus Finch. In 1919, he defended two black men accused of murder. After they were convicted, hanged and mutilated, he never took another criminal case. Lee's father was also the editor and publisher of the Monroeville newspaper. Although more of a proponent of racial segregation than Atticus, he gradually became more liberal in his later years. Though Scout's mother died when she was a baby, Lee was 25 when her mother, Frances Cunningham Finch, died. Lee's mother was prone to a nervous condition that rendered her mentally and emotionally absent. Lee's older brother Edwin was the inspiration for Jem.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Lee modeled the character of Dill on Truman Capote, her childhood friend known then as Truman Persons. Just as Dill lived next door to Scout during the summer, Capote lived next door to Lee with his aunts while his mother visited New York City. Like Dill, Capote had an impressive imagination and a gift for fascinating stories. Both Lee and Capote loved to read, and were atypical children in some ways: Lee was a scrappy tomboy who was quick to fight, and Capote was ridiculed for his advanced vocabulary and lisp. She and Capote made up and acted out stories they wrote on an old Underwood typewriter that Lee's father gave them. They became good friends when both felt alienated from their peers; Capote called the two of them "apart people". In 1960, Capote and Lee traveled to Kansas together to investigate the multiple murders that were the basis for Capote's nonfiction novel "In Cold Blood".


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Down the street from the Lees lived a family whose house was always boarded up; they served as the models for the fictional Radleys. The son of the family got into some legal trouble and the father kept him at home for 24 years out of shame. He was hidden until virtually forgotten; he died in 1952.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: The origin of Tom Robinson is less clear, although many have speculated that his character was inspired by several models. When Lee was 10 years old, a white woman near Monroeville accused a black man named Walter Lett of raping her. The story and the trial were covered by her father's newspaper, which reported that Lett was convicted and sentenced to death. After a series of letters appeared claiming Lett had been falsely accused, his sentence was commuted to life in prison. He died there of tuberculosis in 1937. Scholars believe that Robinson's difficulties reflect the notorious case of the Scottsboro Boys, in which nine black men were convicted of raping two white women on negligible evidence. However, in 2005, Lee stated that she had in mind something less sensational, although the Scottsboro case served "the same purpose" to display Southern prejudices. Emmett Till, a black teenager who was murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman in Mississippi in 1955, and whose death is credited as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement, is also considered a model for Tom.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: The strongest element of style noted by critics and reviewers is Lee's talent for narration, which in an early review in "Time" was called "tactile brilliance". Writing a decade later, another scholar noted, "Harper Lee has a remarkable gift of story-telling. Her art is visual, and with cinematographic fluidity and subtlety we see a scene melting into another scene without jolts of transition." Lee combines the narrator's voice of a child observing her surroundings with a grown woman's reflecting on her childhood, using the ambiguity of this voice combined with the narrative technique of flashback to play intricately with perspectives. This narrative method allows Lee to tell a "delightfully deceptive" story that mixes the simplicity of childhood observation with adult situations complicated by hidden motivations and unquestioned tradition. However, at times the blending causes reviewers to question Scout's preternatural vocabulary and depth of understanding. Both Harding LeMay and the novelist and literary critic Granville Hicks expressed doubt that children, as sheltered as Scout and Jem, could understand the complexities and horrors involved in the trial for Tom Robinson's life.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Writing about Lee's style and use of humor in a tragic story, scholar Jacqueline Tavernier-Courbin states: "Laughter ... [exposes] the gangrene under the beautiful surface but also by demeaning it; one can hardly ... be controlled by what one is able to laugh at." Scout's precocious observations about her neighbors and behavior inspired National Endowment of the Arts director David Kipen to call her "hysterically funny". To address complex issues, however, Tavernier-Courbin notes that Lee uses parody, satire, and irony effectively by using a child's perspective. After Dill promises to marry her, then spends too much time with Jem, Scout reasons the best way to get him to pay attention to her is to beat him up, which she does several times. Scout's first day in school is a satirical treatment of education; her teacher says she must undo the damage Atticus has wrought in teaching her to read and write, and forbids Atticus from teaching her further. Lee treats the most unfunny situations with irony, however, as Jem and Scout try to understand how Maycomb embraces racism and still tries sincerely to remain a decent society. Satire and irony are used to such an extent that Tavernier-Courbin suggests one interpretation for the book's title: Lee is doing the mocking—of education, the justice system, and her own society—by using them as subjects of her humorous disapproval.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Critics also note the entertaining methods used to drive the plot. When Atticus is out of town, Jem locks a Sunday school classmate in the church basement with the furnace during a game of Shadrach. This prompts their black housekeeper Calpurnia to escort Scout and Jem to her church, which allows the children a glimpse into her personal life, as well as Tom Robinson's. Scout falls asleep during the Halloween pageant and makes a tardy entrance onstage, causing the audience to laugh uproariously. She is so distracted and embarrassed that she prefers to go home in her ham costume, which saves her life.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Scholars have characterized "To Kill a Mockingbird" as both a Southern Gothic and a "Bildungsroman". The grotesque and near-supernatural qualities of Boo Radley and his house, and the element of racial injustice involving Tom Robinson, contribute to the aura of the Gothic in the novel. Lee used the term "Gothic" to describe the architecture of Maycomb's courthouse and in regard to Dill's exaggeratedly morbid performances as Boo Radley. Outsiders are also an important element of Southern Gothic texts and Scout and Jem's questions about the hierarchy in the town cause scholars to compare the novel to "Catcher in the Rye" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". Despite challenging the town's systems, Scout reveres Atticus as an authority above all others, because he believes that following one's conscience is the highest priority, even when the result is social ostracism. However, scholars debate about the Southern Gothic classification, noting that Boo Radley is, in fact, human, protective, and benevolent. Furthermore, in addressing themes such as alcoholism, incest, rape, and racial violence, Lee wrote about her small town realistically rather than melodramatically. She portrays the problems of individual characters as universal underlying issues in every society.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: As children coming of age, Scout and Jem face hard realities and learn from them. Lee seems to examine Jem's sense of loss about how his neighbors have disappointed him more than Scout's. Jem says to their neighbor Miss Maudie the day after the trial, "It's like bein' a caterpillar wrapped in a cocoon ... I always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, least that's what they seemed like". This leads him to struggle with understanding the separations of race and class. Just as the novel is an illustration of the changes Jem faces, it is also an exploration of the realities Scout must face as an atypical girl on the verge of womanhood. As one scholar writes, ""To Kill a Mockingbird" can be read as a feminist Bildungsroman, for Scout emerges from her childhood experiences with a clear sense of her place in her community and an awareness of her potential power as the woman she will one day be."


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Despite the novel's immense popularity upon publication, it has not received the close critical attention paid to other modern American classics. Don Noble, the editor of a book of essays about the novel, estimates that the ratio of sales to analytical essays may be a million to one. Christopher Metress writes that the book is "an icon whose emotive sway remains strangely powerful because it also remains unexamined". Noble suggests it does not receive academic attention because of its consistent status as a best-seller ("If that many people like it, it can't be any good.") and that general readers seem to feel they do not require analytical interpretation.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Harper Lee had remained famously detached from interpreting the novel since the mid-1960s. However, she gave some insight into her themes when, in a rare letter to the editor, she wrote in response to the passionate reaction her book caused:Surely it is plain to the simplest intelligence that "To Kill a Mockingbird" spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor and conduct, Christian in its ethic, that is the heritage of all Southerners.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: When the book was released, reviewers noted that it was divided into two parts, and opinion was mixed about Lee's ability to connect them. The first part of the novel concerns the children's fascination with Boo Radley and their feelings of safety and comfort in the neighborhood. Reviewers were generally charmed by Scout and Jem's observations of their quirky neighbors. One writer was so impressed by Lee's detailed explanations of the people of Maycomb that he categorized the book as Southern romantic regionalism. This sentimentalism can be seen in Lee's representation of the Southern caste system to explain almost every character's behavior in the novel. Scout's Aunt Alexandra attributes Maycomb's inhabitants' faults and advantages to genealogy (families that have gambling streaks and drinking streaks), and the narrator sets the action and characters amid a finely detailed background of the Finch family history and the history of Maycomb. This regionalist theme is further reflected in Mayella Ewell's apparent powerlessness to admit her advances toward Tom Robinson, and Scout's definition of "fine folks" being people with good sense who do the best they can with what they have. The South itself, with its traditions and taboos, seems to drive the plot more than the characters.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: The second part of the novel deals with what book reviewer Harding LeMay termed "the spirit-corroding shame of the civilized white Southerner in the treatment of the Negro". In the years following its release, many reviewers considered "To Kill a Mockingbird" a novel primarily concerned with race relations. Claudia Durst Johnson considers it "reasonable to believe" that the novel was shaped by two events involving racial issues in Alabama: Rosa Parks' refusal to yield her seat on a city bus to a white person, which sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, and the 1956 riots at the University of Alabama after Autherine Lucy and Polly Myers were admitted (Myers eventually withdrew her application and Lucy was expelled, but reinstated in 1980). In writing about the historical context of the novel's construction, two other literary scholars remark: ""To Kill a Mockingbird" was written and published amidst the most significant and conflict-ridden social change in the South since the Civil War and Reconstruction. Inevitably, despite its mid-1930s setting, the story told from the perspective of the 1950s voices the conflicts, tensions, and fears induced by this transition."


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Scholar Patrick Chura, who suggests Emmett Till was a model for Tom Robinson, enumerates the injustices endured by the fictional Tom that Till also faced. Chura notes the icon of the black rapist causing harm to the representation of the "mythologized vulnerable and sacred Southern womanhood". Any transgressions by black males that merely hinted at sexual contact with white females during the time the novel was set often resulted in a punishment of death for the accused. Tom Robinson's trial was juried by poor white farmers who convicted him despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence, as more educated and moderate white townspeople supported the jury's decision. Furthermore, the victim of racial injustice in "To Kill a Mockingbird" was physically impaired, which made him unable to commit the act he was accused of, but also crippled him in other ways. Roslyn Siegel includes Tom Robinson as an example of the recurring motif among white Southern writers of the black man as "stupid, pathetic, defenseless, and dependent upon the fair dealing of the whites, rather than his own intelligence to save him". Although Tom is spared from being lynched, he is killed with excessive violence during an attempted escape from prison, being shot seventeen times.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: The theme of racial injustice appears symbolically in the novel as well. For example, Atticus must shoot a rabid dog, even though it is not his job to do so. Carolyn Jones argues that the dog represents prejudice within the town of Maycomb, and Atticus, who waits on a deserted street to shoot the dog, must fight against the town's racism without help from other white citizens. He is also alone when he faces a group intending to lynch Tom Robinson and once more in the courthouse during Tom's trial. Lee even uses dreamlike imagery from the mad dog incident to describe some of the courtroom scenes. Jones writes, "[t]he real mad dog in Maycomb is the racism that denies the humanity of Tom Robinson ... When Atticus makes his summation to the jury, he literally bares himself to the jury's and the town's anger."


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: In a 1964 interview, Lee remarked that her aspiration was "to be ... the Jane Austen of South Alabama." Both Austen and Lee challenged the social status quo and valued individual worth over social standing. When Scout embarrasses her poorer classmate, Walter Cunningham, at the Finch home one day, Calpurnia, their black cook, chastises and punishes her for doing so. Atticus respects Calpurnia's judgment, and later in the book even stands up to his sister, the formidable Aunt Alexandra, when she strongly suggests they fire Calpurnia. One writer notes that Scout, "in Austenian fashion", satirizes women with whom she does not wish to identify. Literary critic Jean Blackall lists the priorities shared by the two authors: "affirmation of order in society, obedience, courtesy, and respect for the individual without regard for status".


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Scholars argue that Lee's approach to class and race was more complex "than ascribing racial prejudice primarily to 'poor white trash' ... Lee demonstrates how issues of gender and class intensify prejudice, silence the voices that might challenge the existing order, and greatly complicate many Americans' conception of the causes of racism and segregation." Lee's use of the middle-class narrative voice is a literary device that allows an intimacy with the reader, regardless of class or cultural background, and fosters a sense of nostalgia. Sharing Scout and Jem's perspective, the reader is allowed to engage in relationships with the conservative antebellum Mrs. Dubose; the lower-class Ewells, and the Cunninghams who are equally poor but behave in vastly different ways; the wealthy but ostracized Mr. Dolphus Raymond; and Calpurnia and other members of the black community. The children internalize Atticus' admonition not to judge someone until they have walked around in that person's skin, gaining a greater understanding of people's motives and behavior.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: The novel has been noted for its poignant exploration of different forms of courage. Scout's impulsive inclination to fight students who insult Atticus reflects her attempt to stand up for him and defend him. Atticus is the moral center of the novel, however, and he teaches Jem one of the most significant lessons of courage. In a statement that both foreshadows Atticus' motivation for defending Tom Robinson and describes Mrs. Dubose, who is determined to break herself of a morphine addiction, Atticus tells Jem that courage is "when you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what".


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Charles J. Shields, who wrote the first book-length biography of Harper Lee, offers the reason for the novel's enduring popularity and impact is that "its lessons of human dignity and respect for others remain fundamental and universal". Atticus' lesson to Scout that "you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—until you climb around in his skin and walk around in it" exemplifies his compassion. She ponders the comment when listening to Mayella Ewell's testimony. When Mayella reacts with confusion to Atticus' question if she has any friends, Scout offers that she must be lonelier than Boo Radley. Having walked Boo home after he saves their lives, Scout stands on the Radley porch and considers the events of the previous three years from Boo's perspective. One writer remarks, "... [w]hile the novel concerns tragedy and injustice, heartache and loss, it also carries with it a strong sense [of] courage, compassion, and an awareness of history to be better human beings."


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Just as Lee explores Jem's development in coming to grips with a racist and unjust society, Scout realizes what being female means, and several female characters influence her development. Scout's primary identification with her father and older brother allows her to describe the variety and depth of female characters in the novel both as one of them and as an outsider. Scout's primary female models are Calpurnia and her neighbor Miss Maudie, both of whom are strong-willed, independent, and protective. Mayella Ewell also has an influence; Scout watches her destroy an innocent man in order to hide her desire for him. The female characters who comment the most on Scout's lack of willingness to adhere to a more feminine role are also those who promote the most racist and classist points of view. For example, Mrs. Dubose chastises Scout for not wearing a dress and camisole, and indicates she is ruining the family name by not doing so, in addition to insulting Atticus' intentions to defend Tom Robinson. By balancing the masculine influences of Atticus and Jem with the feminine influences of Calpurnia and Miss Maudie, one scholar writes, "Lee gradually demonstrates that Scout is becoming a feminist in the South, for with the use of first-person narration, she indicates that Scout/Jean Louise still maintains the ambivalence about being a Southern lady she possessed as a child."


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Absent mothers and abusive fathers are another theme in the novel. Scout and Jem's mother died before Scout could remember her, Mayella's mother is dead, and Mrs. Radley is silent about Boo's confinement to the house. Apart from Atticus, the fathers described are abusers. Bob Ewell, it is hinted, molested his daughter, and Mr. Radley imprisons his son in his house to the extent that Boo is remembered only as a phantom. Bob Ewell and Mr. Radley represent a form of masculinity that Atticus does not, and the novel suggests that such men, as well as the traditionally feminine hypocrites at the Missionary Society, can lead society astray. Atticus stands apart as a unique model of masculinity; as one scholar explains: "It is the job of real men who embody the traditional masculine qualities of heroic individualism, bravery, and an unshrinking knowledge of and dedication to social justice and morality, to set the society straight."


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Allusions to legal issues in "To Kill a Mockingbird", particularly in scenes outside of the courtroom, have drawn the attention of legal scholars. Claudia Durst Johnson writes that "a greater volume of critical readings has been amassed by two legal scholars in law journals than by all the literary scholars in literary journals". The opening quote by the 19th-century essayist Charles Lamb reads: "Lawyers, I suppose, were children once." Johnson notes that even in Scout and Jem's childhood world, compromises and treaties are struck with each other by spitting on one's palm, and laws are discussed by Atticus and his children: is it right that Bob Ewell hunts and traps out of season? Many social codes are broken by people in symbolic courtrooms: Mr. Dolphus Raymond has been exiled by society for taking a black woman as his common-law wife and having interracial children; Mayella Ewell is beaten by her father in punishment for kissing Tom Robinson; by being turned into a non-person, Boo Radley receives a punishment far greater than any court could have given him. Scout repeatedly breaks codes and laws and reacts to her punishment for them. For example, she refuses to wear frilly clothes, saying that Aunt Alexandra's "fanatical" attempts to place her in them made her feel "a pink cotton penitentiary closing in on [her]". Johnson states, "[t]he novel is a study of how Jem and Scout begin to perceive the complexity of social codes and how the configuration of relationships dictated by or set off by those codes fails or nurtures the inhabitants of (their) small worlds."


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Songbirds and their associated symbolism appear throughout the novel. Their family name Finch is also Lee's mother's maiden name. The titular mockingbird is a key motif of this theme, which first appears when Atticus, having given his children air-rifles for Christmas, allows their Uncle Jack to teach them to shoot. Atticus warns them that, although they can "shoot all the bluejays they want", they must remember that "it's a sin to kill a mockingbird". Confused, Scout approaches her neighbor Miss Maudie, who explains that mockingbirds never harm other living creatures. She points out that mockingbirds simply provide pleasure with their songs, saying, "They don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us." Writer Edwin Bruell summarized the symbolism when he wrote in 1964, "'To kill a mockingbird' is to kill that which is innocent and harmless—like Tom Robinson." Scholars have noted that Lee often returns to the mockingbird theme when trying to make a moral point.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Tom Robinson is the chief example, among several in the novel, of innocents being carelessly or deliberately destroyed. However, scholar Christopher Metress connects the mockingbird to Boo Radley: "Instead of wanting to exploit Boo for her own fun (as she does in the beginning of the novel by putting on gothic plays about his history), Scout comes to see him as a 'mockingbird'—that is, as someone with an inner goodness that must be cherished." The last pages of the book illustrate this as Scout relates the moral of a story Atticus has been reading to her, and, in allusions to both Boo Radley and Tom Robinson, states about a character who was misunderstood, "when they finally saw him, why he hadn't done any of those things ... Atticus, he was real nice," to which he responds, "Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them."


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: The novel exposes the loss of innocence so frequently that reviewer R. A. Dave claims that because every character has to face, or even suffer defeat, the book takes on elements of a classical tragedy. In exploring how each character deals with his or her own personal defeat, Lee builds a framework to judge whether the characters are heroes or fools. She guides the reader in such judgments, alternating between unabashed adoration and biting irony. Scout's experience with the Missionary Society is an ironic juxtaposition of women who mock her, gossip, and "reflect a smug, colonialist attitude toward other races" while giving the "appearance of gentility, piety, and morality". Conversely, when Atticus loses Tom's case, he is last to leave the courtroom, except for his children and the black spectators in the colored balcony, who rise silently as he walks underneath them, to honor his efforts.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Despite her editors' warnings that the book might not sell well, it quickly became a sensation, bringing acclaim to Lee in literary circles, in her hometown of Monroeville, and throughout Alabama. The book went through numerous subsequent printings and became widely available through its inclusion in the Book of the Month Club and editions released by "Reader's Digest Condensed Books".


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Initial reactions to the novel were varied. "The New Yorker" declared Lee "a skilled, unpretentious, and totally ingenuous writer", and "The Atlantic Monthly"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s reviewer rated the book "pleasant, undemanding reading", but found the narrative voice—"a six-year-old girl with the prose style of a well-educated adult"—to be implausible. "Time" magazine's 1960 review of the book states that it "teaches the reader an astonishing number of useful truths about little girls and about Southern life" and calls Scout Finch "the most appealing child since Carson McCullers' Frankie got left behind at the wedding". The "Chicago Sunday Tribune" noted the even-handed approach to the narration of the novel's events, writing: "This is in no way a sociological novel. It underlines no cause ... "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a novel of strong contemporary national significance."


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Not all reviewers were enthusiastic. Some lamented the use of poor white Southerners, and one-dimensional black victims, and Granville Hicks labeled the book "melodramatic and contrived". When the book was first released, Southern writer Flannery O'Connor commented, "I think for a child's book it does all right. It's interesting that all the folks that are buying it don't know they're reading a child's book. Somebody ought to say what it is." Carson McCullers apparently agreed with the "Time" magazine review, writing to a cousin: "Well, honey, one thing we know is that she's been poaching on my literary preserves."


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: One year after its publication "To Kill a Mockingbird" had been translated into ten languages. In the years since, it has sold more than 30 million copies and been translated into more than 40 languages. The novel has never been out of print in hardcover or paperback, and has become part of the standard literature curriculum. A 2008 survey of secondary books read by students between grades 9–12 in the U.S. indicates the novel is the most widely read book in these grades. A 1991 survey by the Book of the Month Club and the Library of Congress Center for the Book found that "To Kill a Mockingbird" was fourth in a list of books that are "most often cited as making a difference". It is considered by some to be the "Great American Novel".


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: The 50th anniversary of the novel's release was met with celebrations and reflections on its impact. Eric Zorn of the "Chicago Tribune" praises Lee's "rich use of language" but writes that the central lesson is that "courage isn't always flashy, isn't always enough, but is always in style". Jane Sullivan in the "Sydney Morning Herald" agrees, stating that the book "still rouses fresh and horrified indignation" as it examines morality, a topic that has recently become unfashionable. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writing in "The Guardian" states that Lee, rare among American novelists, writes with "a fiercely progressive ink, in which there is nothing inevitable about racism and its very foundation is open to question", comparing her to William Faulkner, who wrote about racism as an inevitability. Literary critic Rosemary Goring in Scotland's "The Herald" notes the connections between Lee and Jane Austen, stating the book's central theme, that "one's moral convictions are worth fighting for, even at the risk of being reviled" is eloquently discussed.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Native Alabamian sports writer Allen Barra sharply criticized Lee and the novel in "The Wall Street Journal" calling Atticus a "repository of cracker-barrel epigrams" and the novel represents a "sugar-coated myth" of Alabama history. Barra writes, "It's time to stop pretending that "To Kill a Mockingbird" is some kind of timeless classic that ranks with the great works of American literature. Its bloodless liberal humanism is sadly dated". Thomas Mallon in "The New Yorker" criticizes Atticus' stiff and self-righteous demeanor, and calls Scout "a kind of highly constructed doll" whose speech and actions are improbable. Although acknowledging that the novel works, Mallon blasts Lee's "wildly unstable" narrative voice for developing a story about a content neighborhood until it begins to impart morals in the courtroom drama, following with his observation that "the book has begun to cherish its own goodness" by the time the case is over. Defending the book, Akin Ajayi writes that justice "is often complicated, but must always be founded upon the notion of equality and fairness for all." Ajayi states that the book forces readers to question issues about race, class, and society, but that it was not written to resolve them.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Many writers compare their perceptions of "To Kill a Mockingbird" as adults with when they first read it as children. Mary McDonagh Murphy interviewed celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Rosanne Cash, Tom Brokaw, and Harper's sister Alice Lee, who read the novel and compiled their impressions of it as children and adults into a book titled "Scout, Atticus, and Boo".


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: The New York Times announced "To Kill a Mockingbird" as the best book of the past 125 years on December 28, 2021.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: One of the most significant impacts "To Kill a Mockingbird" has had is Atticus Finch's model of integrity for the legal profession. As scholar Alice Petry explains, "Atticus has become something of a folk hero in legal circles and is treated almost as if he were an actual person." Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center cites Atticus Finch as the reason he became a lawyer, and Richard Matsch, the federal judge who presided over the Timothy McVeigh trial, counts Atticus as a major judicial influence. One law professor at the University of Notre Dame stated that the most influential textbook he taught from was "To Kill a Mockingbird", and an article in the "Michigan Law Review" claims, "No real-life lawyer has done more for the self-image or public perception of the legal profession," before questioning whether "Atticus Finch is a paragon of honor or an especially slick hired gun".


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: In 1992, an Alabama editorial called for the death of Atticus, saying that as liberal as Atticus was, he still worked within a system of institutionalized racism and sexism and should not be revered. The editorial sparked a flurry of responses from attorneys who entered the profession because of him and esteemed him as a hero. Critics of Atticus maintain he is morally ambiguous and does not use his legal skills to challenge the racist status quo in Maycomb. However, in 1997, the Alabama State Bar erected a monument to Atticus in Monroeville, marking his existence as the "first commemorative milestone in the state's judicial history". In 2008, Lee herself received an honorary special membership to the Alabama State Bar for creating Atticus who "has become the personification of the exemplary lawyer in serving the legal needs of the poor".


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: "To Kill a Mockingbird" has been a source of significant controversy since its being the subject of classroom study as early as 1963. The book's racial slurs, profanity, and frank discussion of rape have led people to challenge its appropriateness in libraries and classrooms across the United States. The American Library Association reported that "To Kill a Mockingbird" was number 21 of the 100 most frequently challenged books of 2000–2009. Following parental complaints about the racist language it contains, the novel was removed from classrooms in Virginia in 2016 and Biloxi, Mississippi, where it was described as making people "uncomfortable", in 2017. In the Mississippi case, the novel was removed from the required reading list but subsequently made available to interested students with parental consent. Such decisions have been criticised: the American Civil Liberties Union noted the importance of engaging with the novel's themes in places where racial injustice persists. Becky Little, of The History Channel, and representatives of the Mark Twain House noted that the value of classics lies in their power to "challenge the way we think about things" (Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" has attracted similar controversy). Arne Duncan, who served as Secretary of Education under President Obama, noted that removal of the book from reading lists was evidence of a nation with "real problems". In 1966, a parent in Hanover, Virginia, protested that the use of rape as a plot device was immoral. Johnson cites examples of letters to local newspapers, which ranged from amusement to fury; those letters expressing the most outrage, however, complained about Mayella Ewell's attraction to Tom Robinson over the depictions of rape. Upon learning the school administrators were holding hearings to decide the book's appropriateness for the classroom, Harper Lee sent $10 to "The Richmond News Leader" suggesting it be used toward the enrollment of "the Hanover County School Board in any first grade of its choice". The National Education Association in 1968 placed the novel second on a list of books receiving the most complaints from private organizations—after "Little Black Sambo".


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: With a shift of attitudes about race in the 1970s, "To Kill a Mockingbird" faced challenges of a different sort: the treatment of racism in Maycomb was not condemned harshly enough. This has led to disparate perceptions that the novel has a generally positive impact on race relations for white readers, but a more ambiguous reception by black readers. In one high-profile case outside the U.S., school districts in the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia attempted to have the book removed from standard teaching curricula in the 1990s, stating:


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Furthermore, despite the novel's thematic focus on racial injustice, its black characters are not fully examined. In its use of racial epithets, stereotyped depictions of superstitious blacks, and Calpurnia, who to some critics is an updated version of the "contented slave" motif and to others simply unexplored, the book is viewed as marginalizing black characters. One writer asserts that the use of Scout's narration serves as a convenient mechanism for readers to be innocent and detached from the racial conflict. Scout's voice "functions as the not-me which allows the rest of us—black and white, male and female—to find our relative position in society". A teaching guide for the novel published by "The English Journal" cautions, "what seems wonderful or powerful to one group of students may seem degrading to another". A Canadian language arts consultant found that the novel resonated well with white students, but that black students found it "demoralizing". With racism told from a white perspective with a focus on white courage and morality, some have labeled the novel as having a "white savior complex", a criticism also leveled at the film adaptation with its white savior narrative. Another criticism, articulated by Michael Lind, is that the novel indulges in classist stereotyping and demonization of poor rural "white trash".


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: The novel is cited as a factor in the success of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, however, in that it "arrived at the right moment to help the South and the nation grapple with the racial tensions (of) the accelerating civil rights movement". Its publication is so closely associated with the Civil Rights Movement that many studies of the book and biographies of Harper Lee include descriptions of important moments in the movement, despite the fact that she had no direct involvement in any of them. Civil Rights leader Andrew Young comments that part of the book's effectiveness is that it "inspires hope in the midst of chaos and confusion" and by using racial epithets portrays the reality of the times in which it was set. Young views the novel as "an act of humanity" in showing the possibility of people rising above their prejudices. Alabama author Mark Childress compares it to the impact of "Uncle Tom's Cabin", a book that is popularly implicated in starting the U.S. Civil War. Childress states the novel


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: gives white Southerners a way to understand the racism that they've been brought up with and to find another way. And most white people in the South were good people. Most white people in the South were not throwing bombs and causing havoc ... I think the book really helped them come to understand what was wrong with the system in the way that any number of treatises could never do, because it was popular art, because it was told from a child's point of view.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Diane McWhorter, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the Birmingham campaign, asserts that "To Kill a Mockingbird" condemns racism instead of racists, and states that every child in the South has moments of racial cognitive dissonance when they are faced with the harsh reality of inequality. This feeling causes them to question the beliefs with which they have been raised, which for many children is what the novel does. McWhorter writes of Lee, "for a white person from the South to write a book like this in the late 1950s is really unusual—by its very existence an act of protest." Author James McBride calls Lee brilliant but stops short of calling her brave:


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: I think by calling Harper Lee brave you kind of absolve yourself of your own racism ... She certainly set the standards in terms of how these issues need to be discussed, but in many ways I feel ... the moral bar's been lowered. And that's really distressing. We need a thousand Atticus Finches.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: McBride, however, defends the book's sentimentality, and the way Lee approaches the story with "honesty and integrity".


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: During the years immediately following the novel's publication, Harper Lee enjoyed the attention its popularity garnered her, granting interviews, visiting schools, and attending events honoring the book. In 1961, when "To Kill a Mockingbird" was in its 41st week on the bestseller list, it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, stunning Lee. It also won the Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews in the same year, and the Paperback of the Year award from "Bestsellers" magazine in 1962. Starting in 1964, Lee began to turn down interviews, complaining that the questions were monotonous, and grew concerned that the attention she received bordered on the kind of publicity celebrities sought. Since then, she declined to talk with reporters about the book. She also steadfastly refused to provide an introduction, writing in 1995: "Introductions inhibit pleasure, they kill the joy of anticipation, they frustrate curiosity. The only good thing about Introductions is that in some cases they delay the dose to come. "Mockingbird" still says what it has to say; it has managed to survive the years without preamble."


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: In 2001, Lee was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor. In the same year, Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley initiated a reading program throughout the city's libraries, and chose his favorite book, "To Kill a Mockingbird", as the first title of the One City, One Book program. Lee declared that "there is no greater honor the novel could receive". By 2004, the novel had been chosen by 25 communities for variations of the citywide reading program, more than any other novel. David Kipen of the National Endowment of the Arts, who supervised The Big Read, states "people just seem to connect with it. It dredges up things in their own lives, their interactions across racial lines, legal encounters, and childhood. It's just this skeleton key to so many different parts of people's lives, and they cherish it."


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: In 2006, Lee was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Notre Dame. During the ceremony, the students and audience gave Lee a standing ovation, and the entire graduating class held up copies of "To Kill a Mockingbird" to honor her. Lee was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 5, 2007, by President George W. Bush. In his remarks, Bush stated, "One reason "To Kill a Mockingbird" succeeded is the wise and kind heart of the author, which comes through on every page ... "To Kill a Mockingbird" has influenced the character of our country for the better. It's been a gift to the entire world. As a model of good writing and humane sensibility, this book will be read and studied forever."


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: After remaining at number one throughout the entire five-month-long voting period in 2018, the American public, via PBS's "The Great American Read", chose "To Kill A Mockingbird" as America's Favorite Book.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: In 2003, the novel was listed at No. 6 on the BBC's The Big Read after a year-long survey of the British public, the highest ranking non-British book on the list. On November 5, 2019, BBC News listed "To Kill a Mockingbird" on its list of the 100 most influential novels. In 2020, the novel was number five on the list of "Top Check Outs OF ALL TIME" by the New York Public Library.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: An earlier draft of "To Kill a Mockingbird", titled "Go Set a Watchman", was controversially released on July 14, 2015. This draft, which was completed in 1957, is set 20 years after the time period depicted in "To Kill a Mockingbird" but is not a continuation of the narrative. This earlier version of the story follows an adult Scout Finch who travels from New York City to visit her father, Atticus Finch, in Maycomb, Alabama, where she is confronted by the intolerance in her community. The "Watchman" manuscript was believed to have been lost until Lee's lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it, but this claim has been widely disputed. "Watchman" contains early versions of many of the characters from "To Kill a Mockingbird". According to Lee's agent Andrew Nurnberg, "Mockingbird" was originally intended to be the first book of a trilogy: "They discussed publishing "Mockingbird" first, "Watchman" last, and a shorter connecting novel between the two." This assertion has been discredited, however, by rare-books expert James S. Jaffe, who reviewed the pages at the request of Lee's attorney and found them to be only another draft of "To Kill a Mockingbird". Nurnberg's statement was also contrary to Jonathan Mahler's description of how "Watchman" was seen as just the first draft of "Mockingbird".


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Instances where many passages overlap between the two books, in some case word for word, also refute this assertion. Both books were also investigated with the help of forensic linguistics and their comparative study confirmed that Harper Lee was their sole author.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: The book was made into the well-received 1962 film with the same title, starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. The film's producer, Alan J. Pakula, remembered Universal Pictures executives questioning him about a potential script: "They said, 'What story do you plan to tell for the film?' I said, 'Have you read the book?' They said, 'Yes.' I said, 'That's the story.'" The movie was a hit at the box office, quickly grossing more than $20 million from a $2-million budget. It won three Oscars: Best Actor for Gregory Peck, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium for Horton Foote. It was nominated for five more Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Mary Badham, the actress who played Scout. At the time, she was the youngest actress nominated in the category.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Lee was pleased with the film, "In that film the man and the part met ... I've had many, many offers to turn it into musicals, into TV or stage plays, but I've always refused. That film was a work of art". Peck met Lee's father, the model for Atticus, before the filming. Lee's father died before the film's release. Lee was so impressed with Peck's performance that she gave him her father's pocket watch, which he had with him the evening he was awarded the Oscar for Best Actor. Years later, he was reluctant to tell Lee that the watch was stolen out of his luggage in London Heathrow Airport. When Peck eventually did tell Lee, she told him, "Well, it's only a watch". He said, "Harper—she feels deeply, but she's not a sentimental person about things". Lee and Peck shared a friendship long after the movie was made. Peck's grandson was named "Harper" in her honor.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: In May 2005, Lee made an uncharacteristic appearance at the Los Angeles Public Library at the request of Peck's widow Veronique, who said of Lee:


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: She's like a national treasure. She's someone who has made a difference ... with this book. The book is still as strong as it ever was, and so is the film. All the kids in the United States read this book and see the film in the seventh and eighth grades and write papers and essays. My husband used to get thousands and thousands of letters from teachers who would send them to him.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: The book has been adapted as a play by Christopher Sergel. It debuted in 1990 in Monroeville, a town that labels itself "The Literary Capital of Alabama". The play runs every May on the county courthouse grounds and townspeople make up the cast. White male audience members are chosen at the intermission to make up the jury. During the courtroom scene, the production moves into the Monroe County Courthouse and the audience is racially segregated. Author Albert Murray said of the relationship of the town to the novel (and the annual performance): "It becomes part of the town ritual, like the religious underpinning of Mardi Gras. With the whole town crowded around the actual courthouse, it's part of a central, civic education—what Monroeville aspires to be."


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Sergel's play toured in the UK starting at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds in 2006, and again in 2011 starting at the York Theatre Royal, both productions featuring Duncan Preston as Atticus Finch. The play also opened the 2013 season at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London where it played to full houses and starred Robert Sean Leonard as Atticus Finch, his first London appearance in 22 years. The production returned to the venue to close the 2014 season, prior to a UK tour.


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: According to a "National Geographic" article, the novel is so revered in Monroeville that people quote lines from it like Scripture; however, Harper Lee herself refused to attend any performances, because "she abhors anything that trades on the book's fame". To underscore this sentiment, Lee demanded that a book of recipes named "Calpurnia's Cookbook" not be published and sold out of the Monroe County Heritage Museum. David Lister in "The Independent" states that Lee's refusal to speak to reporters made them desire to interview her all the more, and her silence "makes Bob Dylan look like a media tart". Despite her discouragement, a rising number of tourists made Monroeville their destination, hoping to see Lee's inspiration for the book, or Lee herself. Local residents call them "Mockingbird groupies", and although Lee was not reclusive, she refused publicity and interviews with an emphatic "Hell, no!"


title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: In October 2018, Fred Fordham adapted and illustrated the story as a graphic novel. Some of the longer descriptive and commentary passages have been left out - "the bits that children tend to skip anyway" as C. J. Lyons says in her review of the graphic novel in the New York Journal of Books), who goes on to say "the heart of Lee's fictional 1933 Maycomb is faithfully recreated via the art and dialogue".


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: Avengers: Infinity War is a 2018 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the sequel to "The Avengers" (2012) and "" (2015), and the 19th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the film features an ensemble cast including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldaña, Josh Brolin, and Chris Pratt. In the film, the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy attempt to prevent Thanos from collecting the six all-powerful Infinity Stones as part of his quest to kill half of all life in the universe.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: The film was announced in October 2014 as "Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1". The Russo brothers came on board to direct in April 2015, and a month later Markus and McFeely signed on to write the script for the film, which draws inspiration from Jim Starlin's 1991 comic book "The Infinity Gauntlet" and Jonathan Hickman's 2013 comic book "Infinity". In 2016, Marvel shortened the title to "Avengers: Infinity War". in January 2017 at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, with a large cast consisting mostly of actors reprising their roles from previous MCU films, including Brolin as Thanos. The production lasted until July 2017, shooting back-to-back with a direct sequel, "" (2019). Additional filming took place in Scotland, the Downtown Atlanta area, and New York City. With an estimated budget of $325–400 million, the film is one of the most expensive films ever made.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: "Avengers: Infinity War" premiered in Los Angeles on April 23, 2018, and was released in the United States on April 27, as part of of the MCU. The film received praise for Brolin's performance, visual effects, action sequences, and emotional weight. The film was the fourth film and the first superhero film to gross over $2billion worldwide, breaking numerous , and becoming the highest-grossing film of 2018 and the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time both worldwide and in the United States and Canada. It received a nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 91st Academy Awards, among . The sequel, "Avengers: Endgame", was released in April 2019.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: Having acquired the Power Stone–one of six Infinity Stones–from the planet Xandar, Thanos and his lieutenants: Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive, intercept the spaceship carrying the survivors of Asgard's destruction. After subduing Thor, Thanos extracts the Space Stone from the Tesseract, overpowers the Hulk, and kills Loki. Thanos also kills Heimdall after he sends Hulk to Earth using the Bifröst. Thanos and his lieutenants leave, destroying the ship.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: Hulk crash-lands in the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City, reverting to the form of Bruce Banner. He warns Stephen Strange and Wong about Thanos' plan to destroy half of all life in the universe, and they recruit Tony Stark. Maw and Obsidian arrive to retrieve the Time Stone from Strange, drawing Peter Parker's attention. Maw, unable to take the Time Stone due to Strange's enchantment, captures him. Stark and Parker sneak aboard Maw's spaceship while Wong stays behind to guard the Sanctum.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: The Guardians of the Galaxy respond to the Asgardian ship's distress call and rescue Thor. Thor surmises that Thanos is after the Reality Stone, which Taneleer Tivan possesses on Knowhere. He travels with Rocket and Groot to Nidavellir to enlist the dwarf king Eitri's aid in creating the battle-axe Stormbreaker. Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, and Mantis travel to Knowhere, finding Thanos already has the Reality Stone. Thanos kidnaps Gamora, who discloses the Soul Stone's location to save Nebula from torture. On Vormir, the Stone's keeper, Red Skull, tells Thanos that he can only acquire it by sacrificing someone he loves. Thanos sacrifices Gamora, earning the Stone.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: In Edinburgh, Midnight and Glaive ambush Wanda Maximoff and Vision to retrieve the Mind Stone in Vision's forehead. Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Sam Wilson rescue them and they take shelter with James Rhodes and Banner at the Avengers Compound. Vision asks Maximoff to destroy him and the Mind Stone to keep it from Thanos, but Maximoff refuses. Rogers suggests they travel to Wakanda, which he believes has the resources to remove the Stone without killing Vision.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: Nebula escapes captivity and asks the remaining Guardians to meet her on Thanos' destroyed homeworld, Titan. Stark and Parker kill Maw and rescue Strange. The trio crash-lands on Titan, where they meet Quill, Drax, and Mantis. Using the Time Stone, Strange views millions of possible futures, seeing only one in which the Avengers win. The group formulates a plan to subdue Thanos and remove the Infinity Gauntlet, with which he safely houses and wields the Stones. Thanos appears, justifying his plans as necessary to guarantee the survival of an overpopulated universe. Nebula arrives soon after and helps the others subdue Thanos, but then deduces that Thanos has killed Gamora. Enraged, Quill attacks Thanos, inadvertently allowing him to break the group's hold and overpower them. Thanos grievously wounds Stark, but Strange offers the Time Stone in exchange for sparing Stark's life.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: In Wakanda, Rogers reunites with Bucky Barnes before Thanos' army invades. The Avengers, along with T'Challa and the Wakandan forces, mount a defense while Shuri works to extract the Mind Stone from Vision. Unable to summon the Hulk after losing to Thanos, Banner fights in Stark's Hulkbuster armor. Thor, Rocket, and Groot arrive to reinforce the Avengers. Together they kill Midnight, Obsidian, and Glaive, and route Thanos' army. Shuri cannot complete the extraction before Thanos himself arrives on the field, slowed only briefly by Rogers, Banner, Rhodes, T'Challa, Barnes, and Groot. Vision convinces a reluctant Maximoff to destroy him and the Mind Stone, but Thanos uses the Time Stone to reverse her actions, rip the stone from Vision's forehead, and complete the Gauntlet. Although Thor severely wounds Thanos with Stormbreaker, Thanos activates the completed Gauntlet by snapping his fingers before teleporting away.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: Half of all life across the universe disintegrates, including Barnes, T'Challa, Groot, Maximoff, Wilson, Mantis, Drax, Quill, Strange, Parker, Maria Hill, and Nick Fury, just after sending an emergency signal on a modified pager. Stark and Nebula remain stranded on Titan while Banner, M'Baku, Okoye, Rhodes, Rocket, Rogers, Romanoff, and Thor are left on the Wakandan battlefield. Meanwhile, Thanos watches a sunrise on a remote planet.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: Additionally, several other actors reprise their MCU roles: Danai Gurira as Okoye, the head of the Dora Milaje; Letitia Wright as T'Challa's sister Shuri; William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross, the U.S. Secretary of State; Kerry Condon as the voice of Stark's AI F.R.I.D.A.Y.; Winston Duke as M'Baku, the leader of Wakanda's mountain tribe the Jabari; Florence Kasumba as Ayo, a member of the Dora Milaje; Jacob Batalon as Parker's friend Ned; Isabella Amara as Parker's classmate Sally; Tiffany Espensen as Parker's classmate Cindy; and Ethan Dizon as Parker's classmate Tiny. Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders make uncredited cameos as Nick Fury and Maria Hill, the former director and deputy director of S.H.I.E.L.D., respectively, in the film's post-credits scene.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: Thanos' henchmen, known collectively in the comics as the Black Order and in the film as the "Children of Thanos", include Terry Notary as Cull Obsidian, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Ebony Maw, Carrie Coon as Proxima Midnight, and Michael James Shaw as Corvus Glaive. The foursome provided voices and motion-capture performances on set for their characters. As Coon was pregnant during filming, she mainly did facial capture for Proxima Midnight with some motion-capture, with stuntwoman Monique Ganderton standing-in and providing the rest on set. Ebony Maw's look was inspired by the Marvel Comics character Mephisto, who appeared in the "Infinity Gauntlet" storyline.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: Ross Marquand voices Johann Schmidt / Red Skull, the "Stonekeeper" and former Nazi commander of Hydra during World War II. Marquand replaces Hugo Weaving, who had expressed reluctance to reprise the character from "" (2011). Red Skull was created through CGI and portrayed with stand-ins on set. Avengers co-creator Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance in the film as Parker's school bus driver, while screenwriter Stephen McFeely cameos as Secretary Ross' aide. Kenneth Branagh, the director of "Thor" (2011), voices an Asgardian distress caller in an uncredited cameo. David Cross was invited to make a cameo appearance as Tobias Fünke, his character from the television sitcom "Arrested Development", which the Russo brothers had previously worked on; this was prevented by a scheduling conflict, but Fünke still appears in the film as a specimen in the Collector's collection, played by an uncredited extra. Executive producer Jon Favreau was to reprise his role as Happy Hogan, while co-director Joe Russo had a cameo appearance as a paparazzi photographer, but this scene did not make the theatrical cut of the film.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: In October 2014, Marvel announced a two-part sequel to "", titled "Avengers: Infinity War". "Part 1" was scheduled to be released on May 4, 2018, with "Part 2" scheduled for May 3, 2019. In April 2015, Marvel announced that Anthony and Joe Russo would direct both parts of "Avengers: Infinity War", with back-to-back filming expected to begin in 2016. The next month, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely had signed on to write the screenplays for both parts of the film, which draws inspiration from Jim Starlin's 1991 "The Infinity Gauntlet" comic and Jonathan Hickman's 2013 "Infinity" comic. Anthony Russo added the film was inspired by 1990s heist films, with Thanos "on a smash-and-grab" to acquire all of the Infinity Stones. Producer Kevin Feige said the films were titled as two parts of a single film because of the shared elements between the films, but he felt they would be "two distinct" films, not one story split across two films. In May 2016, the Russos revealed that they would retitle the two films, to further remove this misconception. That July, Marvel revealed "Part 1"s title would be shortened to simply "Avengers: Infinity War".


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: Principal photography began on January 23, 2017, under the working title "Mary Lou", at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, with Trent Opaloch as director of photography. "Infinity War", along with "", were shot using ARRI Alexa IMAX 2D cameras, thus marking the first time that a Hollywood feature film was shot entirely with IMAX digital cameras. In early February, Marvel confirmed the involvement of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man, Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord, and Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in the film. Additional filming took place in Scotland beginning in February 2017. The filming occurred in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the Scottish Highlands, with studio work taking place at Wardpark Studios in Cumbernauld. In late June 2017, filming occurred in Downtown Atlanta, as well as Atlanta's Central Park in early July, before moving to Queens, New York in the middle of the month. Filming concluded on July 14, 2017. For the film's final scene, where Thanos settles in a nipa hut, the filmmakers worked with Thailand-based studio Indochina Productions to acquire footage of the Banaue Rice Terraces at Ifugao, Philippines.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: Later in July 2017, Joe Russo stated there were a couple of unfinished scenes for "Infinity War" that would be shot "in the next few months". In early March 2018, Disney moved the release of "Infinity War" in the United States to April 27, 2018, to have it be released the same weekend as some of its international markets. Visual effects for the film were created by Industrial Light & Magic, Framestore, Method Studios, Weta Digital, DNEG, Cinesite, Digital Domain, Rise, Lola VFX, and Perception. With an estimated budget in the range of $325–400 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made. Evans and Hemsworth both earned $15 million for the film.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: In June 2016, Alan Silvestri, who composed the score for "The Avengers", was revealed to be returning to score both "Infinity War" and "Endgame". Silvestri recorded his score from January 2018 to late March, and found working on the film to be "a really different experience than anything I'd done before, especially in regard to the approach and balancing quick shifts in tone". Ludwig Göransson's theme from "Black Panther" is used in the film. Hollywood Records and Marvel Music released regular and deluxe soundtrack albums digitally on April 27, 2018, with physical releases on May 18. The deluxe edition featured some extended and additional tracks.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: In May 2017, Robert Downey Jr. and his philanthropic organization Random Act Funding partnered with Omaze for a contest in which a randomly chosen winner from those that donated would receive an "Infinity War" set visit. A life-sized statue of Thanos, created by Legacy Effects, was on display at D23 Expo 2017, alongside statues of the Black Order / "Children of Thanos": Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw, and Cull Obsidian. Additionally, Feige, Joe Russo, Downey, Brolin, Bettany, Olsen, Klementieff, Gillan, Bautista, Cheadle, Mackie, Cumberbatch, Stan, Holland, Boseman, Ruffalo, and Hemsworth appeared at D23 Expo to present a clip highlighting the 10 years of MCU films, along with footage from "Infinity War". The footage, which was screened exclusively for the panel, received strong audience reaction, with fans "literally on their feet and jumping as the footage played". Julia Alexander of "Polygon" said there was "quite a bit happening" in the footage and it "finally feels like Marvel has made the movie it always wanted to—and the one we've always wanted to see." CinemaBlend's Eric Eisenberg said the footage left him "literally shaking", with the film looking "like it could be one of the most epic blockbusters ever created". Haleigh Foutch for Collider described it as "dark and dramatic, and utterly epic. It's clear Marvel is trying to do something different here [...] to pay off a decade's worth of narrative and world-building. While it's impossible to tell from two minutes work of footage, it certainly looks like that gamble paid off". The D23 footage was also shown at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con International. After the two convention presentations, "Avengers: Infinity War" generated over 90,000 new conversations on social media from July 17 to 23, the third-most during that time period behind "Thor: Ragnarok" and "Justice League" (2017), according to Comscore and its PreAct service. "Infinity War" stayed in third the following week, with over 41,000 new social media conversations, behind "Ragnarok" and "It" (2017). By the week of October 16, "Infinity War" had generated over 679,000 total social media conversations.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: To promote the film's first trailer, Marvel released a compilation video of some of its previous trailers since "Iron Man" (2008), "paired with fan reaction videos to those trailers". The first trailer for "Avengers: Infinity War" debuted on "Good Morning America" on November 29, 2017. Josh Spiegel of "The Hollywood Reporter" said, "The most important part of the trailer is how it carefully, deliberately introduces the notion that the "Infinity War" films are going to function as a passing of the torch, from one set of Avengers to a newer group". Scott Mendelson, writing for "Forbes", noted that even though the trailer was not much different from the convention footage screened earlier in the year, it was "damn impressive." Additionally, the trailer had an "excellent effect", using the "Avengers Initiative speech" by Nick Fury and the "Avengers theme" by Alan Silvestri from "The Avengers". Conversely to Mendelson, Alexander commented on the different marketing strategy for the film between the convention footage scenes and the trailer scenes, feeling the "two couldn't be more different". She said the convention footage (intended to please the crowd who were "jittery with anticipation") was released between "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" and "Thor: Ragnarok", and heavily focused Thor and the Guardians, while the trailer (designed to explain the film to general audiences) heavily features Black Panther and Wakanda, which Alexander said could not have been done before the additional marketing for "Black Panther" that happened after the conventions provided additional context. Gael Cooper of CNET observed that the trailer was viewed nearly 500,000 times in its first 15 minutes after it was posted on YouTube, but questioned if the trailer broke the site after the view counter appeared to be stuck at 467,331. The trailer was viewed 230 million times in its first 24 hours, becoming the most viewed trailer in that time period, surpassing the record of "It".


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: In January 2018, Marvel Comics published a two-issue prequel comic titled "Avengers: Infinity War Prelude", which serves as a bridge between "Captain America: Civil War" and "Avengers: Infinity War". A commercial for "Infinity War" aired during Super Bowl LII, and generated the most social media buzz of all the films advertised according to comScore and United Talent Agency; it was viewed 17.6 million times across YouTube and Facebook. On February 27, Disney and Marvel announced the "Marvel: The Universe Unites" charity campaign leading to the release of merchandise for the film on March 3. The week-long event saw stars from the film create social media challenges to provide funds and raise awareness for charities that support children and families impacted by serious illness. Marvel planned to make a $250,000 donation to Starlight Children's Foundation if these posts collectively reached 1 million likes, while Disney planned to donate 10% of all Marvel's Disney Store sales in the United States and online on the weekend of March 3 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, up to $50,000. Hasbro and Funko each donated $1 million worth of cash and products, to Give Kids the World Village and Starlight Children's Foundation, respectively.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: A second trailer was released on March 16, which earned over 1 million views on YouTube in less than three hours after it was released. Alyssa Rosenberg of "The Washington Post" was not overly enthused about another superhero film having "special-effects-heavy villains, or the sight of yet mysterious object hanging over the Manhattan skyline", but felt the trailer made her realize "that I'm actually looking forward to seeing [the characters of the MCU] get to know each other". Spiegel agreed with Rosenberg about the potential for character interactions, but felt it was "gimmicky" to have so many "crossover-style introductions or combinations of heroes in a movie like this". The second trailer was viewed 179 million times in the first 24 hours, the third-most viewed trailer in that time period, behind the first trailer for the film and "It", while also becoming the biggest release for a second trailer, surpassing "Beauty and the Beast" (2017) (128 million views). A week before the film's release, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai was lit up each night for the film, counting down to its release. Marvel also featured tie-in events across seven of their mobile games to promote the film. In early May, Marvel and Epic Games announced the "Infinity Gauntlet Limited Time Mashup" mode for "Fortnite Battle Royale", where players could find the Infinity Gauntlet hidden on the game map and become Thanos with added abilities. The Russo brothers were fans of "Fortnite" and approached Donald Mustard, the worldwide creative director of Epic Games, about the potential for a crossover between the properties. On November 20, Little, Brown and Company published "Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War: Thanos – Titan Consumed", written by Barry Lyga. Despite not existing within Marvel Studios' MCU canon, the novel explores the origins of Thanos before the events of the film. Lyga spoke with Marvel Studios to get an "outline of who Thanos is and what he means to the movies", and "was given great latitude and a free hand [in some areas of the story], while in others I had to tip-toe very carefully through the MCU".


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: All-in-all, the studio spent an estimated $150 million on prints and advertisements promoting the film. Additional marketing partners for the film included Coca-Cola, Quicken Loans and their Rocket Mortgage service, the Infiniti QX50 (which appears in the film), Ziploc, Go-Gurt, Yoplait, Synchrony Bank, American Airlines, and Stand Up to Cancer. The partners created television commercials "inspired by or featuring the film's characters and themes", interactive digital initiatives, and robust in-store presences at numerous retailers. Duracell, Unilever, Quaker Oats Company, Chevron, and Samsung ran promotions in smaller markets. Coca-Cola, Ziploc, Go-Gurt, and Yoplait created special packaging in support of the film, with Synchrony implementing a "Save Like a Hero" campaign, and Stand Up to Cancer and American Airlines launching a national campaign with a PSA starring Johansson and Hemsworth. In the United Kingdom, OnePlus released an "Infinity War" edition for one of their smartphones. "Deadline Hollywood" estimated the media value was $150 million, the largest for any Marvel film, with Coca-Cola contributing an estimated $40 million.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: "Avengers: Infinity War" held its world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on April 23, 2018, screening also at the adjacent El Capitan Theatre and Grauman's Chinese Theatre. It was released in most countries worldwide, including the United States, on April 27, with a few debuts beginning as early as April 25, and was shown in IMAX and 3D on select screens. In the United States, the film opened in 4,474 theaters, 408 of which were IMAX; this was the widest release for a Disney title ever and the second-widest ever after "Despicable Me 3"s (2017) 4,529 theaters. Three of AMC Theatres' locations screened the film for 24 hours straight, with 53 of their locations having showtimes at either 2 am or 3 am to accommodate demand. In India, the film had the biggest release ever for a Hollywood film, opening on nearly 2,000 screens in four languages. The film also screened in 515 4DX theaters in 59 countries. "Avengers: Infinity War" was originally scheduled to be released on May 4 in the United States. The Chinese release of the film, which opened on May 11, was originally scheduled to end on June 10, but was granted a "rare" extension of 30 days, to end on July 9. "Avengers: Infinity War" is part of of the MCU.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: Select footage from the film was screened in various cities during the film's press tour in early April, ahead of the Los Angeles premiere. The Russos said only a limited amount of the film would be shown at these screenings to reduce the chance of spoilers being leaked. Adam Chitwood of Collider commented that this was "highly unusual as most Marvel movies are screened in their entirety for press about a month before they hit theaters". Ahead of the United States release, AMC Theatres in New York City and Orlando, Florida aired an eleven-MCU film marathon beginning on April 25, ending in a screening of "Infinity War". The El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles had a similar marathon for the film's release.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: "Avengers: Infinity War" was released on digital download by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on July 31, and on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on August 14. The digital and Blu-ray releases include behind-the-scenes featurettes, audio commentary, deleted scenes, and a blooper reel. The digital release also features a roundtable discussion between MCU directors the Russos, Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon, James Gunn, Ryan Coogler, Peyton Reed, and Taika Waititi. In terms of home media sales, the physical versions of the film were collectively the top home media release of the week in which they were first released.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: Despite being shot with IMAX cameras and released in IMAX theaters in the 1.90:1 aspect ratio, the home media release did not present the film in that aspect ratio, instead including a cropped aspect ratio that was used for non-IMAX screenings. Joe Russo said they "spent a long time trying to" have the IMAX version on the home media, but since the IMAX Corporation has "agency over that format", the situation was "complicated". He did not rule out the possibility that this version could be available at a later point. The IMAX Enhanced version of the film was made available on Disney+ beginning on November 12, 2021.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: "Avengers: Infinity War" grossed $678.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $1.370 billion in other territories, for a worldwide total of $2.048 billion, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time, the highest-grossing film of 2018, the highest-grossing MCU film, and the highest-grossing superhero film.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: Its worldwide opening weekend of $640.5 million was the biggest of all time, beating "The Fate of the Furious" (2017) $541.9 million. It was later beat by its sequel, "Avengers: Endgame", which grossed $1.222 billion in its opening weekend.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: It was the fastest film to make $1 billion at the worldwide box office, doing so in 11 days to eclipse "" (2015) record of 12 days. Also, in its second weekend, "Infinity War" passed $13.5 million from 4DX screens, which was the all-time record for the format. On June 12, 2018, "Avengers: Infinity War" passed the $2 billion mark at the worldwide box office, becoming the fourth film to cross that milestone after "Avatar" (2009), "Titanic" (1997), and "The Force Awakens". Crossing the mark in 48 days, it was the second-fastest to that point, after "Avatar"s 47-day record. With $140 million worldwide from IMAX, the film is the third-largest worldwide in the format, behind "Avatar" and "The Force Awakens", and the largest for a Marvel film. "Deadline Hollywood" calculated the film's net profit as $500 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participations, and other costs; box office grosses and home media revenues placed it first on their list of 2018's "Most Valuable Blockbusters".


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: In December 2017, a survey from Fandango indicated that "Infinity War" was the most anticipated film of 2018. Fandango later reported that "Infinity War" achieved the largest initial 24-hour ticket pre-sales for a superhero film, taking just 6 hours to surpass the previous 24-hour record set by "Black Panther". Atom Tickets reported that "Infinity War" sold more tickets in its first pre-sales day than "Black Panther" sold in its first month. Within 72 hours, the film generated the largest pre-sales for any superhero film at AMC Theatres, with its advance ticket sales being 257.6% ahead of "Black Panther"s, 751.5% ahead of "Captain America: Civil War", and 1,106.5% ahead of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" during the same time frame. Two weeks before its release, Fandango revealed that advance ticket sales for "Infinity War" were outpacing the last seven MCU films combined in the same timeframe, and had become the company's top April release. It was also on pace to become the top superhero film. A week before the film released, "The Wall Street Journal" said the film had sold more than $50 million worth of advance tickets, behind only "The Force Awakens" and "" (2017), with Fandango reporting that more than 2,500 showtimes had sold out. On Atom Tickets, "Infinity War" had the most pre-sale volume, selling 7% higher than "The Last Jedi" and 250% higher than "Black Panther" at the same point in their sales. Atom also reported that ticket sales for "Infinity War" were doubling daily the week of its release, the fastest rate of increase the service has seen for any MCU title.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: "Avengers: Infinity War" earned $106.7 million on its opening day in the United States and Canada (including $39 million from Thursday night previews), for an opening weekend total of $258.2 million. The Thursday night preview earning was the best for an MCU film (beating "Avengers: Age of Ultron"s $27.6 million) and the fourth-best of all time, behind "The Force Awakens" ($57 million), "The Last Jedi" ($45 million), and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2" (2011) ($43.5 million). Fandango reported that $14 million of the $39 million came from ticket pre-sales from the company. The opening day gross was the second-best ever, behind "The Force Awakens" $119.1 million; its Saturday gross of $83 million was the best-ever Saturday gross, beating "Jurassic World"s (2015) $69.6 million; and its Sunday gross of $69.2 million was the best-ever, beating "The Force Awakens" $60.5 million. The total weekend gross became the highest-grossing opening weekend, beating "The Force Awakens" $248 million. IMAX contributed $22.5 million to the opening weekend gross, which was the best opening for a Marvel film in the format and the third-biggest opening, behind "The Force Awakens" ($30 million) and "The Last Jedi" ($24.7 million). AMC reported that the film had the highest Friday and Saturday box office gross for a single title in the company's history, while Fandango reported that approximately $84 million worth of tickets were sold through the service, approximately 30%, which was the largest share of the weekend box office for any film in the company's history. "Avengers: Infinity War" earned an additional $25 million the Monday after its opening weekend, which was the highest-grossing Monday in April, beating "Furious 7" (2015) ($14 million), and the second-best Monday gross for an MCU film, after "Black Panther" ($40.1 million). The next day, it earned $23.5 million, which was the highest-grossing Tuesday for an MCU film, beating "Black Panther" ($20.8 million), and the highest-grossing Tuesday in May, beating "The Avengers" ($17.6 million). It also tied "The Force Awakens" for the fastest to reach $300 million at five days.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: The film remained number one in its second weekend, earning $115.5 million, which was the second-best second weekend ever after "The Force Awakens" ($149.2 million). "Infinity War" also surpassed $400 million in the weekend, doing so in nine days, becoming the second fastest film to reach that mark, again after "The Force Awakens" eight days. In its third weekend, "Infinity War" remained number one at the box office, and became the second-fastest film to surpass $500 million, doing so in 15 days (behind "The Force Awakens" 10 days). The weekend also saw its total domestic IMAX gross become $48.1 million, which was the highest for any MCU film. The film's fourth weekend saw it come in second, behind "Deadpool 2", and in its fifth it finished third behind "" (2018) and "Deadpool 2". By May 23, "Infinity War" surpassed $600 million, becoming the second-fastest film to do so in 26 days, after "The Force Awakens" (12 days). It remained in the top ten through its ninth weekend. In the United States and Canada, it went on to become the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time, and the second-highest-grossing superhero film, behind "Black Panther".


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: Outside the United States and Canada, the film earned $382.7 million from 52 markets, opening number one in all, and became the number two opening internationally, behind "The Fate of the Furious" ($444.2 million). IMAX contributed $18.5 million, which was the best opening outside of the US, Canada, and China, surpassing "The Force Awakens" ($17.5 million). All-time opening weekend records were set in South Korea ($39.2 million), Mexico ($25.4 million), Brazil ($19.1 million), India (for a Western release, $18.6 million), the Philippines ($12.5 million), Thailand ($10 million), Indonesia ($9.6 million), Malaysia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Central America, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and West Africa, with many also setting opening day records. France had the biggest superhero opening in the market with $17.7 million, as did Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden. The United Kingdom earned $8.9 million, which was the biggest MCU opening day and third-highest opening day for a Disney film; it would go on to earn $41.4 million for the weekend, which was the third-highest of all time and the second-highest Disney opening. Argentina had the second-highest opening day of all time, while Germany had the best superhero film opening day of all time, ultimately earning $14.7 million, which was the best superhero opening ever. Many other European countries and the Middle East also broke superhero film records. Japan had the second-biggest opening for an MCU film with $9 million, and Australia had the second-highest opening weekend ever, with $23.2 million.


title: Avengers: Infinity War

text: "Avengers: Infinity War" remained number one in its 54 markets in its second weekend. The $4.9 million opening day in Russia was the biggest of all time. However, there was some controversy with the film's release in that country. Originally, the Russian government ordered it to be released on May 11, but after a scandal the government made concessions and agreed to let it premiere on May 3 with a condition that on May 9, during the Victory Day, only Russian films would be played in the cinema theatres. "Infinity War" was also the first film in Russia to sell more than 1 million tickets in a single day, and went on to gross $17.6 million in the market, a new opening weekend record. IMAX contributed $2.2 million in the market, which was also an opening weekend record. In its third weekend, the film remained number one in a majority of its markets. "Infinity War" opened in China to $200 million (RMB 1.266 billion), which was the second-highest opening weekend in local currency behind "The Fate of the Furious" ($184 million and RMB 1.352 million). IMAX contributed $20.5 million, which was the third-largest opening in China. "Infinity War" also broke China's pre-sale record of 400 million yuan ($63 million). In India, "Infinity War" became the first Hollywood film to earn over ₹2 billion net ($29.7 million), and also became the highest-grossing MCU film in the United Kingdom. In its sixth weekend, the film became the highest-grossing MCU film in Japan with $33 million.