(CNN) Two pop-culture juggernauts, "Avengers: Endgame" and "Game of Thrones," nearly collided this weekend -- the first with a record-shattering box-office performance, the latter with a much-anticipated episode of its final season likely to turn many viewers into an emotional wreck.

These franchises have more in common, however, than just their sci-fi/fantasy/comic-book origins. Each has bridged the movie-TV nexus -- the gap between serializing TV storytelling and blockbuster movie-making -- in conquering their respective media.

Marvel brought the episodic nature of TV to the multiplex, across a Marvel Cinematic Universe consisting of 22 movies spanning nearly 60 hours. The HBO drama, meanwhile, with its epic scope and scale, is essentially a theatrical blockbuster being spread, when it's all finished, over 73 made-for-TV installments. (HBO and CNN share parent company WarnerMedia.)

The weekend results for "Endgame" surpassed all expectations , no matter how rosy. That's because the movie represented an event beyond even its status as a sequel to the gargantuan hit "Avengers: Infinity War," which ended -- like a TV show -- on a cliffhanger.

It was, rather, the culmination of everything Marvel has put on screen since "Iron Man" launched its then-audacious plans in 2008. Without giving anything away, the movie capitalized on that entire history, overflowing with callbacks and references to practically every character populating its universe.

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