Due to perhaps the biggest blockbuster ever, the box office is set to surge from last year, and the summer movie season kicked off with a bang...
The Avengers has certainly raised the bar for a major summer blockbuster. The superhero ensemble flick debuted to a mammoth estimated $80.5 million on Friday, the second-highest grossing day in box office history, behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part II's record $91.5 million opening Friday. Originally, based on audience tracking throughout Friday, it was looking like Avengers was going to come in at the low-end of expectations, with a $65 million Friday and $145-$150 million weekend. But an unexpected audience surge late on Friday caused sales to skyrocket. Included in the Friday gross was $18.7 million earned during midnight showings, the eighth-biggest midnight showing ever behind three of the Harry Potter movies, three of the Twilight movies, and The Hunger Games.
The critically-acclaimed (93% on Rotten Tomatoes) flick was loved by audiences ("A+" CinemaScore), but dependent on how front-loaded it is, its' yet to be confirmed if the film will take the opening weekend record from Harry Potter. By comparison, The Dark Knight opened to $67.5 million on its' debut Friday on its' way to a then-record $158.4 million. A similar trajectory would have Avengers reaching $185 million for the weekend, but its' not opening in the middle of summer like Dark Knight did so it will be more front-loaded over the weekend.
The film has already earned $300 million overseas, passing the final overseas grosses of most of the previous Marvel films. Right now, I'm going to say the film will break the record, but just barely, with $172 million for the weekend.
The rest of the holdovers were barely noticeable in the face of The Avengers. The biggest one was Think Like A Man, which fell 56% to an estimated $2.6 million, in what should be an $8.5 million third weekend.
I will update briefly tomorrow morning with the Saturday gross for Avengers and confirm whether or not it will break the opening weekend record...
