I've added this year's nominations to my ongoing graph, and based on past performance, there appear to be two serious contenders: the one that made all the money, and the one that actually deserves it.
Recently had the chance to see it in my local 70mm IMAX theater. While the giant screen was nice for a few scenes, it didn't really add much value to the movie as a whole.
Also, it turns out that film is not always superior. During the silent scene, I could clearly hear the projector clicking away, which kind of spoiled the moment.
The Resistance cruiser was one of the largest capital ships around. Rogue One shows us what happens when a fighter or transport hits a capital ship while jumping to lightspeed: it just splatters on the shields.
On the one hand, sequels to breakout hits tend to decrease. On the other, popular series finales tend to increase (see SW OT, SW PT, HP). The question is which trend will dominate for Avengers.
I think most of my problems with this movie stem from the fact that I watched thinking of it as a superhero movie, when it isn't one. Sure, it has "Avengers" in the title, and has a couple dozen heroes, but the movie isn't about them. It's all about Thanos. It's a supervillain movie, and a fairly good one.