Men in Black 3 Opens at Number 1

Men in Black 3 bumped The Avengers from the number one spot Friday with an $18 million first day take. That’s on par for the series, with the first film making $18.9 million and Men In Black 2 earning $18.6 million. However, when taken in context of ticket price inflation and 3D premiums the film’s ticket sales are significantly more tepid than its box office indicates. Regardless, it is on pace to earn around $70 million over the Memorial Day weekend, which is a very respectable showing.

After 22 days in release The Avengers fell only 36% for the number two spot, raking in another $9.68 million on Friday. The movie has now earned $486.4 million and remains ahead of The Dark Knight’s earnings pace. It is expected to break the $500 million barrier this weekend.

Battleship sunk 66% in its eighth day of release with a meager $3 million box office on Friday bringing its domestic total to $36.5 million domestically. The movie has been bolstered by its significantly better overseas showing for a $263,805,000 worldwide gross. With significant promotion and distribution costs on top of its  $209 million production budget Battleship will be hard pressed to break even.

Avengers Sinks Battleship

The Friday showdown of comic juggernaut The Avengers and the Science Fiction action drenched Battleship turned out to be no contest. The Avengers raked in another $15.3 million, easily crushing Battleship which its disastrous $9 million premiere.

The Avengers is now predicted to easily win its third weekend in a row, pulling in somewhere around $55 million. That will drive its domestic total into the $457 million neighborhood. If it passes the $450 million on Sunday as expected it will become the the fastest movie to do so in only 17 days. shattering The Dark Knight’s 27 day record. The Avengers will also surpass Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest as Disney’s highest-grossing film ever.

Battleship’s poor first day puts it on track for a meager $26 million first weekend. With a budget of $209 million, Battleship looks to be an expensive domestic flop for Universal. This year’s other high profile flop John Carter managed a slightly better $30.2 million opening weekend. Both movies fared better overseas, but their high production and marketing costs doom them to financial failure without a huge domestic take. Both film’s start Taylor Kitsch, who is not getting his big screen career off to a particularly good start.

Meanwhile in other genre news Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows collapsed 61 percent to limp in at fifth place with $3.8 million.  The film has so far only earned back $41.9 million domestically ($78.6 million worldwide) against its $125 million budget.

(Source: boxofficemojo.com)

The Avengers Sets Opening Weekend Record

Marvel’s The Avengers soared to a record breaking opening weekend with $200.3 million in domestic box office. That easily sets a new record for best opening ever, crushing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 which opened to $169.2 million last summer. The Avengers was unable to edge out Deathly Hallows: Part 2 for best Friday opening day, but a slim 13% drop in Friday to Saturday receipts  helped the film outpace Potter over the weekend.

The film opened in overseas markets a week earlier and continued to earn massive receipts this weekend, rising to $441.5 million through Sunday. In only three days of domestic release The Avengers worldwide total of $641.8 million has already surpassed the lifetime totals of its single hero lead in films:  Captain America: The First Avenger ($364 million), Thor ($449 million), Iron Man ($585 million) and Iron Man 2 ($624 million).

The Avengers is the first film in history to cross the $200 million mark in only three days at the domestic box office. It also set a new record for the biggest Saturday gross of all time with $69.7 million. IMAX theaters reported similar record business, with over  $15 million in ticket sales domestically tying Deathly Hallows Part 2 for the biggest opening weekend in the circuit’s history. The film is now projected to easily top $1 billion worldwide, a blessing for Disney after it’s disastrous John Carter forced it to take a $200 million write down.

The Avengers Assembles the 2nd Best Opening Ever

Marvel Comics latest hero adventure The Avengers had the second best opening day ever, earning $80.5 million in its domestic debut on Friday. Last year’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 holds the number one spot with $91.1 million on its first day on the way to a record opening weekend of $169.2 million.

The Avengers opened a week earlier overseas where it has had massive earnings including another $30.3 million internationally on Friday. That brings its overseas total to $334.3 million for a combined worldwide total of $414.8 million.

Marvel Comics strategy of first rolling out origin movies for several of the key characters in The Avengers has proven to be hugely successful. Iron Man earned $585.1 Million worldwide, with its sequel snapping up another $623.9 Million. Thor pulled in $449.3 Million, and Captain America, the weakest performer of the series, earned $368.6 Million. That brings Marvel’s total take from five films based on its heroes to a staggering $1.856 Billion in just four years, and The Avengers is just getting started on its domestic run with expectations that it will easily top the other four film’s earnings.

Reviews for The Avengers have been astonishingly strong, with critics raving about the film. The movie has earned a 93% “fresh” rating from critics and 96% “liked it” rating from users on Rotten Tomatoes, which is an unusual agreement for a comic based movie.

The Avengers stars Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Mark Ruffalo as the Incredible Hulk, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye.

Ender’s Game Release Date Pushed Back

Lionsgate has pushed the release of Ender’s Game back from March 2013 to November 1. That is just three weeks before the release of Catching Fire, the sure to be a hit sequel to The Hunger Games.

The studio is reportedly doing this so they can cross promote the less widely known Ender’s Game with Catching Fire in hopes that it will generate a bigger audience.

Hunger Games Sets 3rd Highest Opening Weekend

The good news for The Hunger Games continued after its stellar first day receipts. The film built on its opening over the weekend, climbing to a massive $155 million debut weekend. That gives The Hunger Games the third highest opening weekend of all time behind the final Harry Potter movie and The Dark Knight. The best opening for a Twilight Saga film was New Moon at just shy of $143 million.

The next test will be whether it can maintain its momentum or if it fades quickly. Next weekend it faces Wrath of the Titans and Mirror Mirror, which are likely to draw different portions of The Hunger Games’ target audience.

Related articles

• Hunger Games Scores a $68M Opening Day (sciencefictiontoday.com)