Weekend Box Office Avenged!!!

Joss Whedon's The Avengers destroyed nearly every opening weekend record blasting off with an estimated $200 million in its first three days of release.  The assemblage of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America was destined to be huge, but it's number is way above any rational thinking.  The film made more in its first weekend than Hulk, Thor or Captain America made in their entire runs, and will destroy both Iron Mans come next weekend.  It's worth noting that ten years ago in the same first weekend of May, the first Spider-man kick-started the superhero rebirth and made a then-astounding record breaking $100+ million, a number that feels wimpy in the age of 3-D, plus a decades-worth of ticket inflation.  The film, widely critically accepted and with that kind of crushing hype behind it that make The Hunger Games take of $150 million back in March seem not quite as extraordinary, will just make it harder for the rest of the would-be blockbusters of the summer to come.  It's quite remarkable, however, like every other Hollywood anomaly, will hopefully be rightfully considered the exception, not the rule.

1. MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS- $200.3 million
2. THINK LIKE A MAN- $8 million/$73 million
3. THE HUNGER GAMES- $5.7 million/$380 million
4. THE LUCKY ONE- $5.5 million/$47 million total
5. THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS- $5.4 million/$18.5 million
6. THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT- $5.1 million/$19 million
7. THE RAVEN- $2.5 million/$12 million
8. SAFE- $2.4 million/$12.8 million 
9. CHIMPANZEE- $2.3 million/$23 million
10. THE THREE STOOGES- $$1.8 million/$39 million
11. THE CABIN IN THE WOODS- $1.5 million/$38 million
12. JOHN CARTER- $1.3 million/$70.5 million
13. 21 JUMP STREET- $1 million/$133 million
14. AMERICAN REUNION- $0.8/$55 million
15. THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL- $0.75

Also impressive was the debut of the dame-heavy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which managed to bring in the biggest opening of the 2012 for a limited film.  The film, directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) and starring Judi Dench and Maggie Smith has already been a huge hit in the UK (where it's scored an impressive $70 million) as was good counterprogramming on the part of Fox Searchlight for a senior alternative to the comic\superhero crowd.