'Avengers' Breaks B-O Records with US$200mil Gross

MAY 7, 2012 - It's been clear for a while that The Avengers would be a huge box office success, although few people could have foreseen this opening. The superhero team-up got off to an unprecedented US$200.3 million start this weekend, smashing the previous all-time weekend record set by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 last Summer (US$169.2 million).

While it fell short of setting a new opening day record (that still belongs to Potter), The Avengers was responsible for new high marks in most other major categories. It was the fastest movie ever to reach US$100 million, US$150 million, and US$200 million, and it set new records for Saturday (US$69.7 million) and Sunday (US$50.1 million) grosses. It also had the highest per-cinema average ever for a nationwide release with US$46,057.

Through its first three days, The Avengers has already grossed more than Thor (US$181 million), Captain America: The First Avenger (US$176.6 million) and The Incredible Hulk (US$134.8 million). It's still behind Iron Man and Iron Man 2 (US$318.4 million and US$312.4 million, respectively), though it should pass those movies next weekend. The big question is how high The Avengers can go — it will obviously hit US$400 million, and with exceptional word-of-mouth (rare "A+" CinemaScore) the movie could even be in line for a US$500 million total.

Here are the Top 5 North American B-O studio estimates for May 4-6, 2012 weekend, in terms of rank, (previous week ranking), Movie name (studio), Weekend takings in USD, (Cumulative gross, USD) and week on chart, courtesy of Boxofficemojo. (US$1=RM3)


1. (-) Marvel's The Avengers (BV) $200.3 million ($200.3 million) 1

2. (1) Think Like a Man (SGem) $8.0 million ($73.0 million) 3

3. (3) The Hunger Games (LGF) $5.7 million ($380.7 million) 7

4. (4) The Lucky One (WB) $5.5 million ($47.9 million) 3

5. (2) The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Sony) $5.4 million ($18.5 million) 2