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What's the story?
WWE CEO and Chairman Vince McMahon took a moment on Monday morning to send Dave Bautista a congratulatory message on Twitter following the record-breaking success of his latest film Avengers: Infinity War, which is currently in its second week at the box office.
In case you didn't know...
Batista last worked for the WWE in 2014. After winning the 2014 WWE Royal Rumble Match, Batista went on to wrestle in the main event of WrestleMania XXX for the WWE Championship against Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan. After WrestleMania, he rejoined Orton and Triple H to reform Evolution and feud with The Shield.
The heart of the matter
The record-breaking success that Vince is referencing is the fact that Avengers: Infinity War is the fastest movie to gross a billion dollars worldwide. The domestic (United States) total reached $450 million only ten days since the movie hit theatres.
Batista plays Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy; which is part of the Marvel universe. Avengers: Infinity War marks the third time that he has appeared as Drax, with the fourth coming in 2019 for the next Avengers movie.
Batista isn't the only WWE Superstar making a mark on the box office this week, as The Rock's movie Rampage came in fifth in its fourth week of release; while John Cena's movie Blockers came in 11th in its fifth week of release.
(Figures and information from Box Office Mojo)
What's next?
Batista has another movie coming out next month when Escape Plan 2: Hades is released on June 21st. It is the sequel to a 2013 film starring Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger about a security expert who tests the systems at a maximum security prison.
Author's take
Marvel is basically printing money with their library of movies. Thanks to the major success of Black Panther this year and Guardians of the Galaxy since 2014, the Avengers movies have gotten even bigger and better.
I'm very happy to see Batista be a part of that success, and it shows with his ever-growing library of film roles.
