The Avengers has so dominated the box office – and we’re looking at a holiday weekend – that it’s possible that Men in Black III might not put The Avengers into second place. It’s also inevitable by weekend’s end that Avengers will be over half a billion domestic. That said, it’s also possible that MIB3 could do a hundred over the four-day weekend. There are variables at play.
As the second contender to be swatted away like a fly, Battleship stood no chance against the mighty Avengers, which is now the sixth highest grossing film of all time, and will beat Stars Wars by Monday evening. The next big hurdle for the film’s domestic gross is $533 (aka The Dark Knight‘s take), which it may be able to clear by the end of the month. Really, the only question left is if it has enough steam to do over $600 domestic.
The Dark Knight Rises has some real competition this summer, as The Avengers has now made over $1.07 Billion dollars worldwide. That puts it as the sixth highest grossing film ever, and it crossed $400 domestic last night – making it the fastest film to do so – which puts it at the number twelve spot for all time domestic grosses.
As of today, The Avengers is the eighth highest grossing picture of all time worldwide. By the end of this weekend it should be the fourth. There are only two movies to have grossed over two billion worldwide – Avatar and Titanic – and it’s looking unlikely that The Avengers will make it to that territory. But it should be able to capsize Battleship this weekend. Easily.
Despite writer-director Joss Whedon’s gift for florid and witty wordplay for powerful actors, ironically, the breakout star of Whedon’s Avengers was a CGI Hulk who utters exactly two words (amidst some grunting and yelling) throughout the film’s two and a half hour running time. Positive fan reaction to the Hulk has been so strong that Marvel has announced they may repeal their “No More Hulk Movies” policy, and now, ABC is pushing to make the Hulk the star of his own TV show.
Between such works as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse, Joss Whedon is known for featuring strong female characters in his TV shows and films. And while The Avengers did have Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow kicking ass and helping to save the world, the film was still a festival of testosterone between Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, and pointless archer that gives Jeremy Renner something to do. Now, Whedon says he wants to up the female hero quotient in Avengers 2.
We get it, The Avengers—people like you. People like you a lot. But $1 billion in global box office receipts in 19 days? Now you’re just showing off, Tony Stark-style. Turns out people really, really want to see four superheroes (plus one athletic super-spy and one pointless dude with a bow and arrow) beat the hell out of New York City.
Only nineteen films have made over $350 Million dollars. The Avengers did that in ten days. Which means that the film should cross the $400 Million dollar mark after twelve to thirteen days – making it the tenth film to do so – and will surely make half a billion domestic, which only three other films have (and two of those were directed by James Cameron). It’s also one of the twelve films to gross a billion worldwide. Sorry Dark Shadows, you were at the wrong place at the wrong time.
This week, Tyler Perry revealed the poster for his upcoming movie Madea’s Witness Protection. HBO also released a set of 12 character posters for True Blood‘s fifth season. We’ve also got a new website we’d like you to check out–we promise it’ll help you make your Netflix experience so much easier. All that and more after the jump.
