‘THE AVENGERS’ NOW BIGGEST OPENER! Shocking $200M Record Domestic Weekend: Expecting $642M Global From First 12 Days
May 4-6 Weekend Actuals
1. Marvel’s The Avengers (Disney) NEW [4,349 Theaters] PG13
Friday $80.8M, Saturday $69.6M, Sunday $57.1M, Weekend $207.4M, Global $640M2. Think Like A Man (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 3 [2,010 Theaters] PG13
Friday $2.7M, Saturday $3.3M, Sunday $2.1M, Weekend $8.1M (-54%), Cume $73.1M3. The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) Week 7 [2,794 Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.6M, Saturday $2.4M, Sunday $1.5M, Weekend $5.6M (-48%), Cume $380.6M4. Pirates! Band of Misfits 3D (Aardman/Sony) Week 2 [3,358 Theaters] PG
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $2.5M, Sunday $1.7M, Weekend $5.5M (-51%), Cume $18.7M5. The Lucky One (Warner Bros) Week 3 [3,005 Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.9M, Saturday $2.2M, Sunday $1.2M, Weekend $5.4M (-50%), Cume $47.8M6. The Five-Year Engagement (Universal) Week 2 [2,941 Theaters] R
Friday $1.7M, Saturday $2.0M, Sunday $1.3M, Weekend $5.0M (-53%), Cume $19.1M7. Safe (Lionsgate) Week 2 [2,271 Theaters] R
Friday $846K, Saturday $1.0M, Sunday $827K, Weekend $2.7M (-66%), Cume $13.0M8. The Raven (Relativity) Week 2 [2,209 Theaters] R
Friday $850K, Saturday $1.0M, Sunday $739K Weekend $2.6M (-64%), Cume $12.2M9. Chimpanzee (Disneynature) Week 3 [1,531 Theaters] G
Friday $703K, Saturday $1.0M, Sunday $777K, Weekend $2.5M (-53%), Cume $23.1M10. The Three Stooges (Fox) Week 4 [2,174 Theaters] PG
Friday $478K, Saturday $800K, Sunday $554K, Weekend $1.8M (-65%), Cume $39.7M
SUNDAY AM… REFRESH FOR LATEST… It’s now official — Marvel’s The Avengers is a monster worldwide hit for Disney in 2D, Digital 3D, RealD, and IMAX 3D theaters. The studio says 52% saw it in 3D, 40% in traditional 3D, 8% in IMAX, and 4% on premium large format. Exit polls showed the actioner attracted a four-quadrant audience with 50% over age 25 and 50% under 25, while 60% were male and 40% female. Also 55% were couples, 24% families, and 21% teens. Hollywood couldn’t be happier because it kicks off the all-important Summer 2012 movie season with sensational numbers. Avengers lived up to its billing as the ‘Superhero Team-Up Of A Lifetime’ by featuring all-in-one pic the iconic Marvel figures Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Nick Fury. Disney says it’s looking 
at a record $69.7M grosses for Saturday after making $80.5M Friday (including $18.7M midnights) from 4,349 U.S. and Canadian locations, including 3,364 plays in 3D. Studio confirms it’s on track to shatter the domestic weekend opening record with $200.3M. (Warner Bros’ 3D Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 finale used to hold that record with $169M.) I believe Disney is being overly conservative and the final figure will exceed that since Avengers should make over $50M on Sunday. (And I thought SNL Kagan’s reportpredicting that $200M domestic debut before the weekend was nuts. Not now…) Disney reports international gross is now $441.5M. The worldwide total is already $641.8M after playing almost everywhere around the globe for the past 12 days including Friday in Russia ($17.9M) and Saturday in China ($17.4M). Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) went to the Beijing Film Festival to help open the film Saturday. One more thing to keep in mind: Avengers accumulated a massive foreign number without opening yet in the major market of Japan. Globally, IMAX Avengers grossed $21.1+M this weekend and the global IMAX cume will be approx $31.2M as of Sunday night. IMAX Avengers brought in $6.1 mil internationally (which includes an amazing first day gross in China of $1.1M) on 174 digital-only locations. In North America IMAX had one big issue: it ran out of seats to sell. Avengers grossed $15+M domestically on 275 digital-only IMAX screens, which looks to be a virtual tie with the Harry Potter finale for the highest grossing opening weekend in IMAX’s history. It reports 17 of the top 20 engagements in North America playing the film were IMAX runs, and 110 domestic IMAX locations established a new opening Saturday record. 
The global pressure was on because Avengers is the first Marvel Studios film from The Walt Disney Studios which took over marketing and distribution duties from Paramount. Disney CEO/President Bob Iger bought the comics entertainment company for $4 billion in 2009. Paramount still gets marquee credit and a portion of the fees. (I’m told that when Disney bought the distribution of Avengers and Iron Man 3, Paramount was paid a minimum of $115M. It gets the higher of the $115M or the combination of its 8% fee on Avengers, plus 9% on next years Iron Man 3. “Looks like there will be overages!” a Paramount exec told me excitedly Sunday. Paramount also kept the pay rights as part of the deal so Avengers will debut on Epix.) Why did this superhero actioner do so well at the box office? As one of my commenters succinctly summarizes: “Note to Hollywood: This is what happens when you let comic fans do comic book movies. Joss Whedon knocked it out of the park. The right mix of humor without camp, special effects without overusage, and action with good script. Having actors who like and/or know the characters doesn’t hurt either. Props to the casting folks.” More details below.
No other major pic dared go up against this juggernaut. Holdovers only total $45M this weekend which is looking like $230M – or +38% over last year. Here’s the Top 10 (based on weekend estimates):
1. Marvel’s The Avengers (Disney) NEW [4,349 Theaters] PG13
Friday $80.5M, Saturday $69.7M, Weekend $200M, Global $640M
2. Think Like A Man (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 3 [2,010 Theaters] PG13
Friday $2.6M, Saturday $3.3M, Weekend $8.0M, Cume $73.0M
3. The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) Week 7 [2,794 Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.6M, Saturday $2.6M, Weekend $5.7M, Cume $380.7M
4. Pirates! Band of Misfits 3D (Aardman/Sony) Week 2 [3,358 Theaters] PG
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $2.4M, Weekend $5.4M (-51%), Cume $18.3M
5. The Lucky One (Warner Bros) Week 3 [3,005 Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.9M, Saturday $2.3M, Weekend $5.4M, Cume $47.8M
6. The Five-Year Engagement (Universal) Week 2 [2,941 Theaters] R
Friday $1.7M, Saturday $2.2M, Weekend $5.2M, Cume $19.3M
7. The Raven (Relativity) Week 2 [2,209 Theaters] R
Friday $844K (-62%), Saturday $1.1M, Weekend $2.6M, Cume $12.1M
8. Safe (Lionsgate) Week 2 [2,271 Theaters] R
Friday $825K (-66%), Saturday $1.0M, Weekend $2.5M, Cume $12.9M
9. Chimpanzee (Disneynature) Week 3 [1,531 Theaters] PG
Friday $707K, Saturday $975K, Weekend $2.3M, Cume $22.9M
10. The Three Stooges (Fox) Week 4 [2,174 Theaters] PG
Friday $480K, Saturday $850K, Weekend $1.8M, Cume $39.6M
FRIDAY PM/SATURDAY AM: What a sensational Summer 2012 kick-off! The first weekend of May is one of the most lucrative release dates each year, especially for Marvel comic book adaptations. And Disney is reporting stronger North American box office for Marvel’s The Avengers in Digital 3D, RealD and IMAX 3D than it dared to hope and even rival studios thought possible. The Friday opening number is now $80.5 million because late shows were coming on strong for the 2nd biggest single day gross and Friday opening of all time in box office history. That includes a whopping $18.7M midnights – or more than Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America combined. In terms of records, it was the 8th biggest midnights opening, and the biggest superhero midnights debut. IMAX reported $1.31M from midnights playing at 273 locations for a record digital-only release and a sell-out across the board. Now Disney says the domestic total is on pace for a record-setting $175M through Sunday from 4,349 U.S. and Canadian locations, including 3,364 plays in 3D. This would make it the all-time biggest domestic weekend opening ever. (Past Warner Bros’ 3D Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 which still holds the Friday opening record of $91M but no longer the first weekend record of $169M.) Disney also just updated the international gross to $334.3M after adding another $30M Friday. That would make the worldwide total at least $575M through Sunday with this weekend’s addition of China, Russia, and of course North America. And, just to rub it in to rival studios, the well-reviewed Avengers also received a rare ‘A+’ CinemaScore from American audiences. Hollywood now is congratulating the filmmakers. ”Freakin’ phenomenal,” one Hollywood studio mogul phoned me Friday night. ”It has a real shot at the record,” another movie boss emailed me. The Avengers was promoted as “The Super Hero Team Up Of A Lifetime” The film stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, and Samuel L. Jackson. It’s based on the Marvel comic book series “The Avengers” first published in 1963. Here’s what a phenom this movie is: I learned that the AMC theater chain sold so many Avengers tickets Friday that its entire credit card processing system was delayed so moviegoers couldn’t charge the pic or concession snacks right away. This, after AMC announced it made $4M from the pic overnight. More details below.
Related: Marvel Has Big Plans For The Hulk As Hero
FRIDAY 7:45 PM… Rival studios tell me they expect Marvel’s The Avengers from Disney to open to $67M (within a range of $60M and $70M) today and around $160M (within a range of $157M-$165M) its first weekend in North America. No records going down yet. More later.
FRIDAY 12:45 PM… My sources are giving very early estimates for Marvel’s The Avengers of between $65 million and $67 million for Friday (including $18.7M midnights) based on matinee trends. Not a record. That would bring the worldwide total to $371 million so far… and counting. More later.
FRIDAY 8 AM: Disney reports that the worldwide cumulative for Marvel’s The Avengers is now $322.7 million, including $304M internationally as Russia and China debut. The U.S./Canada grosses are just getting going and expectedly did not set a record for midnight openings. But The Avengers in Digital 3D, RealD and IMAX 3D still made a gargantuan $18.7 million from about 2,500 North American theaters, or more than Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America combined. In terms of records, it’s the 8th biggest midnights opening, and the biggest superhero midnights debut, with the rest Twilight Saga or Harry Potter franchise films or The Hunger Games. IMAX reports $1.31M from midnights playing at 273 locations. It’s a record digital-only release (vs The Hunger Games‘ $1.22M) and a sell-out across the board. ”IMAX could not sell any more seats last night,” an IMAX rep tells me. The overall midnights record is $43.5M by Warner Bros’ Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 which also holds the Friday opening record of $91M.
FRIDAY 12:01 AM EXCLUSIVE… Disney began releasing Marvel’s The Avengers in Digital 3D, RealD and IMAX 3D after midnight into about 2,500 locations around the U.S. and Canada after first playing filmmaker Joss Whedon’s pic overseas for the past week. “It’s tracking off the charts. Biggest in every category and with everyone — men, women, young, old. Any way you slice it and dice it. It’s just a mega-movie,” one rival studio mogul gushed to me Thursday night. And exhibitors hoping for record box office results are trying to accomodate all the crowds lining up for hours (photo above, Miami) for their first look at this rave-reviewed PG-13 superhero spectacle that’s earned $300+M internationally already. Major theater chains are adding shows from 12:01 AM into the wee hours. ”In an effort to handle the mass demand Regal will be adding additional AM shows at many theatres nationally,” Regal announced. At the AMC Empire Theatre in Manhattan, The Avengers was planning to show on 21 screens at 12:01 AM with contingency plans to play it on all 25 screens if needed. Turns out those extra screens were needed – and most of the moviegoers have on their RealD Avengers collector 3D glasses. Many moviegoers bought advance tickets for the ‘Ultimate Marvel Marathon’ – screenings of the Marvel Studios’ movies Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America leading up to the midnight release of The Avengers. The event sold out in several major U.S. and Canadian markets more than a month ago.
The first guest on NYC’s IMAX line had been there since 8:39 AM Thursday. The 12:01 IMAX show sold out weeks ago, and less than 100 seats remained for the 3:30 AM show. At the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, “round the clock” screenings of the 143-minute movie are skedded with breakfast served at 2:30 AM. Exclusive limited print run comic books are on hand for guests at the 4 AM showing. People started lining up for the midnight show at 9 PM (even though almost everyone had purchased a reserved seat). Groups of people came together as all the different Avengers. Clark Gregg came to introduce the movie.
The U.S. debut follows the incredible success of The Avengers overseas in 41 countries with grosses totalling $281.1 million through its first eight days in theaters (photo right, Seoul). This weekend adds Russia and China where 3D actioners do incredibly well. In the U.S. no other big movie dared to open Friday against this mega-blockbuster which could speed anywhere past $160M during its first 3 days of release through Sunday. The first weekend of May is one of the most lucrative release dates each year, especially for Marvel comic book adaptations. (The first Spider-Man movie in 2002 set a new opening weekend record on this date as did Spider-Man 3 in 2007.) Now the only question is how big is big – and whether The Avengers will top Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2‘s current record of $169.2M because of ticket price inflation and 3D premiums.
Disney and Marvel Studios successfully marketed filmmaker Joss Whedon’s actioner as “The Super Hero Team Up Of A Lifetime” because it featured iconic Marvel figures Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Nick Fury. The film stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, and Samuel L. Jackson. It’s based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963. The film is produced by Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige and executive produced by Alan Fine, Jon Favreau, Stan Lee, Louis D’Esposito, Patricia Whitcher, Victoria Alonso and Jeremy Latcham. The story is by Zak Penn and Joss Whedon and the screenplay is by Whedon who also directed.
Pre-sales were gargantuan with Fandango reporting soaring ticket sales and more than 1,000 showtimes sold out in advance of the midnight opening. ”The Avengers is on track to become one of Fandango’s top ticket-sellers of the year, representing 95% of Thursday’s sales.” The superhero ensemble movie is also outperforming all previous Marvel titles, including all Spider-Man movies and Avengers-related films at the same point in the sales cycle. On top of that, The Avengers is outpacing last summer’s action blockbuster Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon at the same point in that film’s sales cycle. According to a recent Fandango survey, The Avengers is the most anticipated film of this summer, with 66% of fans planning to see it more than once on the big screen. MovieTickets.com reported back on April 26th that The Avengers has pre-sold over 1.5 times more tickets than Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America combined. It topped Fandango’s “Most Anticipated Summer Movie” survey as #1 movie for men, #2 movie for women, #1 movie for 3D, and most anticipated ensemble cast.
Though extremely big, Disney’s theatre count isn’t the all-time list of widest openings at the box office. It’s #7. (No. 1 is June 2010′s The Twilight Saga: Eclipse which released into 4,468 theaters.) The Avengers will open in 275 theatres, or more than half of the IMAX 3D format in 451 digital theatres worldwide. More IMAX territories are launching in tandem with the North American release this week, including China. Domestic IMAX pre-sales are also strong and significantly ahead of any previous Marvel releases.
In-theater promotion kicked off back in July 2011 with a teaser end-tag attached to Captain America: The First Avenger, with a simultaneous teaser print debut featuring the iconic “A” branding and “Assemble” call to action. Theatrical trailers appeared with some of the past year’s biggest hits including Mission Impossible 4, 21 Jump Street, The Hunger Games, and more. Trailers for Marvel’s The Avengers broke iTunes records twice for the most viewed trailer in a 24-hour period – first in October 2011 with 10.6M views (breaking Transformers 3 record by 40%) and again in February 2012 with 13.7M views, which continues to stand as most viewed trailer online to-date. The Avengers was the #1 rated movie advertisement of the Super Bowl 2012 broadcast and earned the highest number of online mentions among all the big game’s ads. The world premiere at Disney’s El Capitan in Los Angeles on April 11 (featuring YouTube’s livestream of Red Carpet arrivals) kicked off the film’s global talent and filmmaker publicity tour, including premieres, special screenings and press across key markets including Moscow, UK, Italy, Germany, China (Beijing Int’l Film Festival), and Brazil, plus the closing night of NYC’s Tribeca Film Festival.
Besides the usual plethora of magazine covers and TV appearances, Facebook fan screenings in 10 major U.S. cities were held on April 14th, plus 14 international markets. There was unprecedented Apple partnership including homepage takeovers, desktop client, CRM eblasts, countdown messaging, social media, mobile, and Apple TV promotion. The Avengers Alliance social game integration featured its first-ever TV spot debut, used as an incentive to earn additional digital rewards (with over 4M players in 30 days). Widespread promotional and retail partnerships were sold (TV, online, in-pack, in-store, and out-of-home) with Acura, Dr. Pepper, Hershey’s, Farmer’s Insurance Red Baron, Target, and others.
EXCLUSIVE, WEDNESDAY: My sources estimate the global juggernaut that is Marvel’s The Avengers from Disney could close in on $160M when it opens in North America this weekend and $425M when it debuts in Russia and China for a possible total near $585M through Sunday. Even very conservative estimates put the worldwide total at $500M through Sunday when Joss Whedon’s actioner will be open in every movie territory except Japan. “May Day holiday gave them huge lift so will definitely get to $500 million this weekend,” a rival studio exec tells me today. “Probably closer to $550M.” The Avengers made $42.3M overseas from 41 territories, bringing the total through Tuesday to $260.5M.
In an April survey on Fandango, the majority of moviegoers picked The Avengers as the most anticipated film of the summer. Some 66% of fans said they plan to see the pic on the big screen more than once. About 31% chose Iron Man as the film’s biggest draw, followed by The Hulk (23%); Thor (15%), and Captain America (12%). And 52% said Black Widow is the next Avengers character they’d like to see in a solo vehicle, followed by 35% for Hawkeye, and 13% for Nick Fury.
Overseas, Thailand & Singapore opened yesterday on their National Labor Day holiday and set not only the highest opening day in industry history, but also the highest grossing single day of all-time. New cumes to date include UK $29.8M, Mexico $27.0M, Australia $22.6M, France $19.7M, Brazil $18.8M.
Hulk Smash!
HAVE YOU NOTICED THERE ARE NO BLACK SUPERHEROS
Because the Superheros are fighting black Evil and criminals.
Not true. Here is a partial list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_black_superheroes
Too bad AVENGERS isn’t a better movie. It’s a good example of a movie with a mediocre Act One and Act Two (way too slow, weak writing, bad villain, etc) but a strong Act Three — which leaves most people thinking that the rest of the movie was really good. It deserved a better film. Not that the audience cares…
Not so. Joss has always been one for have the characters talk and relate to each other so you have time to get to know them. That way the action means so much more when you care. He wouldn’t do it any other way.
If the action started from the word go and then dipped off later on to fir this kinda thing in it wouldn’t have worked at all.
What are you talking about? The writing for this was actually much better than 90% of action movies. Credit to Joss.
That is the most asinine comment I’ve seen in a while. The movie was awesome. i loved it from start to finish. neither i nor virtually anyone will agree with your bs view of the movie. It had a great script, quality acting, perfect special effects, great drama and moments. It was awesome.
in trying to belittle those who can see quality for what it is, you sir come across looking like an idiot. your personal silly opinion, while laughable and insulting simply reflect on yourself.
what a jerk.
Did we watch the same movie? Weak first act? Main plot device established within 5 minutes, immortal god as a Villian within 10 minutes. Conflict and introduction of various characters in 20 minutes all well stuff Is going down around them. it never lets up except when establishing each characters motivation which it should. It allows you to breathe when you need to and then takes that breath away when its time to let go.
Is your name almond white because only one as stupid as him could believe the nonsense you posted
You are one of those people who have to knock down every good movie ever made… You probably like, or pretend to like, movies nobody has ever heard of to try and make yourself seem more unique. I’m sure you do the same thing with music as well. You want people to think you’re so “deep” and special. You’re not.
All that talking and dialogue hurts the brain huh Mr. “The Truth”?
The Truth: “Why you make words so much! Make punching and gun booms!”
I have to agree with Truth weak plot – didn’t develop the invading force AT ALL. The entire movie happened in the last 40 minutes. Terrible writing VERY DISAPPOINTED!
See America, by paying millions for some lame superhero movie, you’re just telling the government that yes, we Do have money in our pockets. How the hell do you think gas prices and utility prices, etc. are gonna go now?. They will Want that money. (What do you think movies are? movies are for statistics).
Um, Nick Fury may not be a Super, but he would still boot you in the head.
War Machine, Beetle, Black Panther, Cloak, Luke Cage, Storm, Falcon, Deathlok, Bishop… those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Anyway, you were saying?
Um. The LEADER of the Avengers is SAMUEL L. JACKSON. You’re not too up on your superheroes, are you?
Mark your not much into comics are you? Cuz the original Nick Furry was white! Check your facts!
Yeah Havok – BUT the Nick Fury in the Ultimates Comic line is black – of which these series of movies draws their influence from.
So – CHECK your facts.
~
Coat
Perhaps you’ve forgotten Blade? One of the best dam_n movies ever, ever.
The Blade series despite some dropped balls was a ton of fun. We miss you Snipes, get your house in order!
Teaisstronger you my friend are a moron, Nick Fury….soldier super-hero….Blade…superhero…Power Man….Black Panther…go away troll boy
what about the leader and founder of SHIELD Nick Fury you moron!
Nick Fury is and always was white. This is the same BS they did with Heimdall in the Thor Movie.
Nick Fury in Marvels Ultimate Line fo comis is BLACK, this and the other Marvels movies are ALL Based int he Ultimate Universe.
Give it a rest.
I expect you were similarly up in arms when the character of Fox in ‘Wanted’ (explicitly modelled on Halle Berry in the comic) was played by Angelina Jolie in the movie…
Besides Nick Fury, what about Storm (X-Men)? Back under your bridge, troll.
I know you be trolling, but BLACK EVIL is a great superhero name.
The Green Lantern was black in some incarnations, and it really shouldn’t matter what color superheroes are if race isn’t supposed to matter.
Well,factually that’s not true, as many have pointed out…but historically it IS true. That sounds contradictory, but hear me out. The Avengers and all the other Marvel hero movies mine the Golden Age of comic superheroes that developed in the 1960s. What many people don’t realize is that African Americans were, by unwritten code, completely absent from Marvel and DC comic books until 1969. They weren’t even represented as *bystanders* (much as records by black groups didn’t have black people on the cover). The first time black people were actually depicted in a Marvel comic book was in Spiderman, in 1969, when some black characters were depicted at a student demonstration. And it caused quite a lot of comment at the time, most of it positive.
Anyway, the upshot of all this is that all the classic comic heroes that Hollywood is so interested in now were developed during this period of voluntary exclusion of African Americans from comics. That’s why none of them is black.
The Black Panther first appeared in 1966. Joe Robertson (a major Spider-Man supporting character) first appeared in 1967.
The Golden Age of superhero comics was the late 30s/40s. The late 50s/60s is known as the Silver Age.
If you can’t even get your most basic terminology right, why should we give consideration to anything else you have to say.
You obviously don’t follow Marvel universe cartoons. One of my earliest heroes I liked was Black Panther. So step off BOZO.
Blade Vampire Hunter was a black Marvel hero comic book-turned movie. Also, I hear that there is a Blank Panther movie from Marvel comics in the works.
Pluto Nash!
don’t fall for “teaisstronger’s” bs question about there being “no black superheroes” – he’s just bitching because there are really no Eastern Indian, Superheroes.
Perhaps you could NAME a few of these black villians they fight.
Any names?
Although, in the interests of fairness, I will concede there are a lot of GREEN supervillians. (And green superheroes too, so it’s not like they’re being singled out for their skin color).
Speaking up for my peeps….didn’t Blade get this whole comic book to movie franchise stuff kick-started? Too bad Wesley’s in jail for another year or two because Blade is a Marvel character and they could easily throw Blade into one of these movies. I’d pay to see Blade and Iron Man be smart asses to each other while kicking some ass. When’s Wesley get out of jail? Maybe they could throw that into Iron Man 3…
Samuel L Jackson is Black or did you miss that?
yeah – that’s gotta burn…
What of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the brains behind The S.H.I.E.L.D.? He’s as black as you can get, and a superhero to the boot!
Great! The theaters are gonna be crammed with superhero movies.
Hey, Wasn’t the Fantastic Four members of the Avengers? The Thing has a rather brownish hue to him.
The Fantastic Four are members of The Fantastic Four. (And while the Thing isn’t black, he IS jewish).
More proof in the dumbing down of America.
Hollywood has become so creative, originalist, absolute creativity, must be owesome to work their these days, when was the last time they had a movie that made any $$ that wasn’t a remake, how pathetic and yet people keep going and seeing this stuff, desparate means, deparate measures.
I think the U.S. number comes in at 200+
Are you kidding me? Double that.
That’s amazing… for a movie everyone has seen before!
are you serious? 400 million dollar domestic weekend gross? I’m sorry man, but 200 is pushing it way to far. I wouldn’t bet on anything higher that 180, and that’s only best case scenario. It could do 170 and still break the record. haha 400 million…
Yeah, 200M for the weekend is pushing it. Haha, already has over 200M and Sunday’s not even half over yet.
Does the final number really matter? The Avengers is huge. There will be at least two more before the pause and reboot.
It is and will be a big tent pole revenue generator for years to come not counting the merchandising.
At the end of the day, the true bragging rights will be the profit to the bottom line.
You’re absolutely right, FTCS. While I’ll be surprised if TDKR doesn’t take the summer crown for total box office receipts, no one merchandises like Disney. The amount of cash they’ll milk out of these Avengers characters will reach obscene amounts.
I suppose that depends on how many of us still have jobs.
Look at who the Superhero fans are. Who do you think those fans are going to vote for in November? How many locks do you think these fans have on their doors? Can there really be a black Superhero?
tea, what are you talking about? Locks on their door?
It’s 2 and a 1/2 hour movie.
That cuts screenings so it’s going to be a hit but not as big as everyone thinks domestically.
Your post makes me LOL…or the theater owners will realize where the money is right now and just axe some screens meant for other movies.
Are you psychic? Because that was impressive.
I have to agree with you Jason.. i think 200-225 million for US opening weekend.
I have been keeping an eye on a number of different comic book fan websites to see what the word of mouth has been like and the fan reaction. There are people in the UK, Australia and New Zealand that have already seen it 3, 4, 5 times and going back again.
I think the question is: how long before it breaks the billion dollar marker?
That’s the problem: too many fanboys keeping an eye on fan websites. No doubt “Avengers” will be huge, but long running time and a finite number of screens will likely prevent it from doing more than maybe $180M – no matter how much fanboys want it to make a gazillion bucks. There simply aren’t enough available tix this weekend to make, say, that silly $400M projection above.
I don’t think that poster seriously claimed it’d make $400 million this weekend. That seems to me more like a miscommunication. One poster thought it’d make $200 million this weekend, while that poster thought he was talking about the total US box office take for Avengers in its run, and made the far more accurate prediction that The Avengers would bring in $400 million total by the time it ends its run.
That being said, this is so far turning out to be an impressive showing. It doesn’t look like it’s going to take the opening weekend record from Deathly Hallows 2, but that was the last movie in the series and had a seven film buildup. If Avengers came this close on its first outing then one can only imagine what Avengers 3, which will probably be the last time we’ll see Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, will do. Especially if the midcredits villain is who they end the trilogy on. Now THAT is going to be a juggernaut.
Insert foot in mouth.
how long? Not long…
1 Billion and counting by the end of the first week…
You heard me.
Easy 250 MM Domestic by Monday, 650MM Worldwide by next Friday. 1BB+ by the time Battleship comes out. Easy. Joss Whedon is the new Cameron/Lucas/Spielberg, finally an actual fanboy becomes one of the greats.
The best thing about The Avengers’ success is that now Joss has the leverage to get his dream project off the ground. And he needs to make WONDER WOMAN that dream project, with Cobie Smulders playing the lead. Can you picture WW written and directed by Joss? With cameo’s by Henry Cavill as Superman and Christian Bale (assuming his Batman survives TDKR, which, rumor has it, he doesn’t) making a flyby as Batman? The mind reels. And, of course, the “Hulk” character will have to be Martian Manhunter.
Black Widow was a mighty kickass in the film. No wonder everyone wants to see her more. I just don’t know if that would be enough to be a big box office draw.
Could ScarJo carry her own action film?
Well every other character in this film has or is rumoured to be in talks about their own film so why not give Scarlet a chance? I’d watch it if it was interesting story.
Put her in that skin-tight black suit and I’ll go just to watch her walk around for 2 hours.
Although I’m not a “fanboy” at 57 my ticket is ready for Thursday, midnight.
Who wants to bet Warners is taking to Christian Bale and Henry Cavill as we speak? ( Maybe Bale and Cavill have that Justice League money spent already. Lol)
The holy grail in comic book move team-ups has always been Batman and Superman.
Um, not sure that’s true.
Superman and Batman may be the top 2 most popular/recognizable comic book heroes, and the Justice League may be the first comic book team-up — but they’re not “the holy grail of team-ups.”
I’m not even speaking as a fanboy… Batman and Superman just can’t exist in the same world, at least not in the same cinematic world. If you had Superman, what reason would there be to need Batman? It would have to be a contrived reason, for the sake of drama and fiction.
There’s neither natural conflict between them nor synergy that arises from them.
If The Avengers proves that a super soldier can team up with a God of Thunder, then a Batman can team up with Superman (called World’s Finest). They have been teaming up for 70 plus years in the comics. It would work in a movie because it is fantasy, not reality.
With the sucess of The Avengers, Warner Bros. will greenlight some sort of team up with their heroes.
Totally agree. Superman/Batman teamups have been a fixture of comics for decades. In 2005, a fan-film was produced, in the form of a three minute “trailer” for a full-length Superman/Batman “World’s Finest” movie (the actual movie was never made, of course–the trailer alone cost the team that put it together about $50,000 out of pocket–just made as a labor of love). Can’t post URLs here, but suffice to say that it can be easily found on YouTube. The trailer is a tremendous piece of work. I wish those guys could have somehow made the complete movie.
If you want to know how a Superman/Batman film can be made successfully, watch that trailer, and you’ll understand.
Why does Superman need Batman? kryptonite has no effect on the caped crusader – it is easy enough seeing them team up so that Batman can work against any bad guys with Kryotonite in the arsenal. My memory of the books long ago is also that Batman is part detective and helps with getting to the root of the evil plot
because superman has been portrayed as a superhero with feminine “energy”
batman will butch him up
Um. There are dozens of great Batman-Superman story lines that have been written over the years, all of which would make a great starting point for a Batman-Superman movie. The first and best to come to mind being “Kingdom Come” by Alex Ross and Mark Waid. You might want to actually read a comic book before you wade in with an opinion like that.
Blink apparently your not on the up and up on the justice leauge and the draw of a superman/batman team up. Is you comic book knowlege and the relationship between the two lacking? Or do you just have a biast oppinion?
Ridiculous. You obviously know nothing about the issue. Batman/Superman is conflict incarnate. Some of the most powerful stories written in the genre are about those two characters
Not to mention times when Superman and Batman have been at odds. I’d LOVE to see a film version of “The Dark Knight Strikes Again”, for example. Just to see Batman open a can of whoop-ass on Superman.
Batman & Superman have been teaming up for decades in DC’s World’s Finest comics. It’s a comics staple, so it would be a natural movie in the world of comic-based films. I think it will be a tough sell for Warner Brothers to get Christian Bale to put on the Batman suit on. He’s connected to Nolan’s version of the character and he might resist going back to the Batcave post-The Dark Knight Rises.
Absolutely untrue. Super man is susceptible to what? Kryptonite. Batman is susceptible to what? Nothing. Batman has infintely more resources, is much more intelligent, and is much more capable of dealing with smarter villains such as Lex Luthor. Also, Batman is the only person who has defeated Superman. I envision a movie where Superman is mostly useless when dealing with someone with a large quantity of kryptonite. The only way for him to save the day is with a little bit of help from the Bat. I could envision Joker with a lot of kryptonite. Would be an awesome movie.
As nerdy as this is going to sound there is no way on gods green earth batman could touch superman. He flies at the speed of light has but one weakness and could just mealt batmans face with his eye beams from a mile away. BAtman is a rich guy with cool shit
Blink, WB TRIED to make a Superman/Batman movie in 2006 with Wolfgang Peterson directing:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,319085,00.html
A combined Superman/Batman logo appeared on a movie marquee in I Am Legend:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/08/batman_superman_movie/
So I’d say H’wood disagreed that there’s no dramatic potential in such a team-up.
Frank Miller’s Dark Knight, nuff said?
p.s. Batman kicks the shee-it out of Superman…
this post and the one directly above (good job with the links) said what I wanted to say, and better.
I was especially thinking of that batman bat symbol with superman’s “S” in the middle on a fictional poster in times square from “I Am Legend” (a movie that could have been so much better)
Superman has been on TV for over 20 straight years, a run that ended only last year. Watched by more people in more countries than have ever watched a Spider-Man or Batman show. Smallville was the 2nd biggest moneymaker show in the entire history of Warner Brothers. As usual, fanboys blather on like idiots, without stopping to think things through. Movies have more prestige. TV is the money monster. (Hollywood “sekret” knowledge being passed to you fanboys). Superman has had a bad run at the movies, granted. And Spider-man and Batman have been larger than usual hits for movies, although non-existent on TV. Who swings the bigger dick is for fanboys to endlessly debate, and everyone else to roll their eyes at because fanboys don’t even know how to define what they are arguing about. At the end of the day all fanboy logic is based on who they like better, and torturing facts to back their irrational feelings up.
PS. Anyone citing comic book sales as a point of popularity is a embarrassing idiot, since everybody knows the entire comic book buying world is composed of less than 90,000 people. Pathetic. They are all losers and unpopular by that equation. Luckily the characters transcended the medium a long time ago.
The reason the Avengers movie works is because a lot of time and money was spent creating the cinematic Marvel universe. DC can’t get their crap together and put together a coherent universe. How many Superman/Batman reboots have there been? The rights to all the JLA characters are spread all over the place between multiple studios. I don’t see it happening anytime soon.
only loser nerds care about a coherent universe
most people just want an awesome movie
Wrong Michael. WB has all rights to DC Comics characters. They have never been broken up between studios like Marvel’s.
The difference is that there has never been a coherent MASTER PLAN at DC/WB to market these characters in multimedia, especially movies. They only recently appointed somebody whose job it is to wrangle all these properties into one direction. And after the flop of Green Lantern, they’ve got a lot of work to do.
Nobody wanted a Jonah Hex movie, for example. Why make Green Lantern when there hasn’t been a big-budget Wonder Woman movie? Why yet ANOTHER Batman animated series? Why a Green Arrow TV show for the CW, when it’s not the same guy who played him in Smallville, and you drop the “Green” from his name? Why did Superman Returns TANK? I loved WATCHMEN, but let’s face it, developing one their marquee heroes (the Trinity: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman) for a PG-13 release would have been money better spent.
Other than the Batman movie franchises, DC’s got nothing. If you fanboys think The Dark Knight Rises will outgross The Dark Knight, you better hope somebody in the movie drops dead before it opens. That’s the only reason TDK did over $300M worldwide. I still say IRON MAN was the better superhero movie that year.
I am a huge Zack Snyder fan, and I’m holding out hope for MAN OF STEEL.
The only DC/WB department that’s jammin’ is the animation division. The further away they get from the Bruce Timm style, though, the less successful the cartoon is IMO.
End fanboy blather LOL
You can bet that Warners is NOT going to let this slide…
I would have to agree with you Rocketeuropa- but i am doubting there will be a JLA movie until the superman copyright nonsense gets cleared up.
There will never be a full-on JLA movie that would be worth watching as Bale is done with Batman after TDKR (and the Nolan fanboys would bitch that his version of Batman can’t coexist with the other DC characters, anyway), and pure SEXISM keeps a blockbuster Wonder Woman movie from being made. And the flop of Green Lantern has cooled out any further movie plans for that character no doubt.
The next set of Batmans films which I can pretty much guarantee will begin to follow the Marvel template and start “DC world building”. The films in general will be darker than Marvels but not as broody and depressing as Nolans. The new Superman film will need to stand alone as it’s own franchise but the seeds of this new DC universe will be baked in there. It’s up to the studio to decide how much attention they get once they get closer to a final product.
I know anyone can come on here and claim to be anyone, but believe me this is truth.
It’s not sexism, its the struggle to get such a silly character portrayed on screen without everyone laughing.
And Green Lantern did about the same business as both Hulk films, so your logic is supremely flawed.
Hi Chad,
Wonder Woman ran for three seasons on TV back in the ’70s, yet it’s a “supremely silly character.” But the male superheroes aren’t “silly”? Right.
And both Hulk films were considered flops, especially the first one, even though they both broke even. There are no announced plans for a GL sequel, which there would be if GL didn’t TANK. So it’s YOUR logic that’s supremely flawed.
Good day to you, sir.
So if this “only” opens to $148 million or something will we have to endure a bunch of “What went wrong?” articles from the entertainment media? Scary thought!
Things are pretty insane here in Brazil. It broke all kind of records and there are sold out screenings everywhere.
It’s shaping up to become insanely huge, and I can’t see a movie more deserving than that. Whedon and Marvel have achieved the impossible with this.
Avengers SMASH!!!!
Who thinks we need Smallville the Movie, with a the Justice League?
Me. It’s the only realistic way forward, imo.
I love Nolan’s Batman, but he only works because each hero exists in his own universe. As long as Nolan is in charge, Batman, Superman and all the rest will be the only hero of their worlds and never cross over. Warners will have to do some major gymnastics to get around that.
I would sort of love that, albeit with a much better writing and directing team than Smallville ever had on the small screen.
I think all that hooey about Batman and Superman not being able to coexist on screen is just nonsense. Would love to see a film with the Big 3, Supes, Batman and Wonder Woman. But I don’t think DC could ever pull it off without screwing it up.
You forgot THE INVISIBLE MAN.
YES PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was Rich Ross involved? Was he shown the door unfairly?
That’s an interesting question. Was Rich Ross involved in this production? Rumor has it that Marvel’s Ike Perlmutter helped kick Ross out the door. But maybe Disney jumped the gun.
Kevin Feige and the folks at Marvel Films began planning for The Avengers back in 2006, when Iron Man was in development. The movie was put in development long before Disney acquired Marvel, and production was started in partnership with Paramount. After the acquisition, Disney paid Paramount a premium for the distribution rights and agreed to allow the Paramount logo to remain on the film, as well as Thor and Captain America.
Therefore it seems clear that credit for the massive success of Marvel’s multi-franchise gamble lies with Feige and his team, rather than with Ross or anyone else at Disney. (Not that they won’t try to hog the glory, of course.)
Some slight corrections. Paramount still distributed and handled the marketing for both Thor and Captain America last year. Those were the last two officially released and distributed by Paramount. But Paramount had not actually produced any of the previous Marvel features either. They only distributed the films for like an 8% distribution fee off the top gross.
But yes, I would put the success of what has gone down more to the Marvel team and the likes of Kevin Feige and Joss Whedon more than anything. This movie was happening regardless of who was in charge and it’s been in the pipelines for years.