Thor’s hammer, Iron Man’s steel, the Hulk’s smash, Captain America’s patriotism and Black Widow’s cleavage combined for quite a wallop over the weekend as The Avengers opened to $200.3 million at the domestic box office over the weekend, according to BoxOffice.com. That blows past the $169.2 record held by last year’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and sets a whole new benchmark for what defines a blockbuster.
A $200 million opening!
The excellent comic book adaptation, directed by Joss Whedon and riding hiding on stellar reviews (94% at Rotten Tomatoes) and amazing word of mouth (an A+ Cinemascore rating) earned $80.5 million on Friday, including $18.7 million in midnight shows, another $69.7 million on Saturday and an estimated $50.1 million on Friday. Could that extra few bucks be an exaggeration to get The Avengers past the $200 million box office weekend mark? Sure, but it doesn’t really matter. With $441 million already earned overseas from a week of distribution, The Avengers is setting pretty at $641.8 million worldwide, which is more than the lifetime totals for Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and the two Hulk movies.
Incredible.
The numbers were helped by 3D viewings – 52% of tickets sold, according to a Yahoo! article, were for 3D showings.
So… what does this mean for The Dark Knight Rises? Will the Batman movie, a sequel to one of the most praised action movies of all and being promoted as the conclusion to the saga, be able to beat this staggering number?
Tags: jeremy renner, Mark Ruffalo, robert downey jr, Samuel L. Jackson, scarlett johansson
