Marvel's The Avengers broke virtually every box-office record known to Hollywood over the weekend, becoming the first film to surpass $200 million domestic on an opening weekend and hurtling toward $1 billion worldwide in what should be a matter of days. Consider the superhero gauntlet thrown down before The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises. Your Weekend Receipts (for what they're worth) are here.
1. The Avengers
Gross: $200,300,000 (new)
Screens: 4,349 (PSA $46,057)
Weeks: 1
Forget the opening-weekend benchmark that will probably never be broken (at least until they find a way to charge extra extra for 3-D) or the $31 million gap between The Avengers and the old record-holder (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 with $169.2 million), and look at it this way: In three days, a movie featuring Marvel's collected comics icons doing battle with Thor's half-brother over a supernatually powered cube drew more Stateside than the gross domestic products of at least two nations — Kiribati ($167 million) and Tuvalu ($35 million). And that's after Tuvalu mounted a comeback in 2011! Anyway, Tuvalu will likely be a Marvel theme park by this time next year, so book your flight now.
2. Think Like a Man
Gross: $8,000,000 ($73,029,000)
Screens: 2,010 (PSA $3,980)
Weeks: 3 (Change: -54.6%)
Did you read our trenchant comparison between Think Like a Man and the 2001 comedy Two Can Play That Game? I'd recommend it, because otherwise I've really got nothing here.
3. The Hunger Games
Gross: $5,700,000 ($380,727,000)
Screens: 2,794 (PSA $2,040)
Weeks: 7 (Change: -47.3%)
After nearly two months as the box office story of the year to date, there goes The Hunger Games beneath the cold, dark, long summer shadows of The Avengers and every other comics flick looming in the distance. No pressure for 2013, Francis Lawrence!
4. The Lucky One
Gross: $5,510,000 ($47,917,000)
Screens: 3,005 (PSA: $1,834)
Weeks: 3 (Change: -49.0%)
Is there some reason why Zac Efron hasn't plugged into the superhero racket yet? Other than Charlie St. Cloud, I guess. Never mind.
5. The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Gross: $5,400,000 ($18,563,000)
Screens: 3,358 (PSA: $1,608)
Weeks: 2 (Change: -51.5%)
Someone had to finish fifth.
[Figures via Box Office Mojo]
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