Despite pushing over the $500 million domestic mark, Marvel’s The Avengers is no longer the number one movie in America. That honor is currently held by Men in Black III, which took in more than $55 million in its first weekend.
The Memorial Day Weekend is always a big one for box office numbers. Though Men in Black III didn’t match the nearly $86 million taken in by The Hangover Part II last year, it earned a respectable debut for the science fiction franchise. Shown on 4,248 screens, the movie had a healthy per theatre average of just under $13 thousand. Taking into account the long weekend, MIB3’s gross is likely to challenge $100 by the end of its second weekend. Overseas, the film earned $132 million for a total opening gross of $187 million, just shy of its $215 million dollar budget.
The Avengers fought valiantly over the weekend, but fell to second in its fourth week of release. The superhero film mustered a shade under $37 million, while pushing its domestic gross over the $500 million mark to a total of $513.7 domestically. Internationally, Marvel’s The Avengers has grossed $781.6 million since its debut for a worldwide gross just shy of $1.3 billion. It trails The Dark Knight by $20 million for third in all time domestic gross, and is on its way to surpass that film sometime this week. Titanic is second all-time with a domestic gross of $658 million and Avatar is first with over $760 million. Worldwide The Avengers is fourth all time behind the same three films.
Battleship saw its $25 million opening weekend gross drop almost 58% to $10.8 million this weekend. Through two weeks the action film has grossed a mere $44.3 million domestically. Battleship has fared much better internationally with a combined worldwide total of $277 million.
Coming in at fourth over the weekend was The Dictator with $9.6 million. Down 45% from its opening weekend, the Dictator is above $40 million in domestic gross against a $65 million dollar budget. Internationally the Sacha Baron Cohen film made an additional $50 million for a total of over $90 million.
Chernobyl Diaries grossed a measly eight million in its debut weekend to rank fifth at the box office. The horror film opened in over 2,400 theaters for an average of around $3,300. Despite an unspectacular opening weekend, the film has a budget of only $12.5 million and should see itself in the black shortly.
Dark Shadows was sixth over the weekend making more than $7.5 million in its third week. Its domestic gross is approaching $63 million and worldwide it has made nearly $170 million. What To Expect When Your Expecting made $7.15 million in its second week for a gross of $22.1 million. The Hunger Games made just less than three million dollars and is just five million short of $400 domestically.
Friday June 1st sees the wide release of Snow White and the Huntsman and a sizeable distribution of the foreign film For Greater Glory.
Can Men in Black III Be bested?
