The Avengers Are Kings of the Opening Weekend

The Avengers (known to us in the UK as Avengers Assemble) has taken the top spot for highest opening weekend gross of all time with a staggering domestic gross of $200.3million as it released in America, E! Online reports. It knocked last year’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 off the number 1 spot with this new record, and became the first film in history to break the $200 million mark in just three days (taking $18.7 million for midnight screenings, $80.5 million for the entirety of Friday, $69.7 million for Saturday and a projected $50.1 million for Sunday). It beat all the opening weekend grosses for the past Marvel Studio heroes’ movies. Worldwide, where it has been released for just over a week, it has taken $641.8 million overall.

IMAX seats sold $15 million (the biggest taking for an opening weekend in IMAX, with IMAX executive Greg Foster acknowledging that seats had sold out) and 3D sales took just over half of all tickets sold, proving that 3D is not dead yet (although whether it makes films better is another matter).

A wide variety of audiences went to see The Avengers, polling data revealed, with an even audience of under and over 25s, 40% of the audiences were women and functioning well as a family outing (24% of the audiences were family groups) and as a date-night treat (55% of audiences went as couples).

It is a testament to Joss Whedon’s writing and direction that The Avengers has appealed so well to so many audiences – younger and older, male and female, families and couples – and it would be extremely interesting if he did return for a future Avengers adventure to see if he could smash this incredible new record.

News sources – Box Office Mojo, E! Online