I can’t stop thinking about The Avengers; every time I try, some scene will randomly pop up in my head which immediately leads to me smiling. Have you ever had that first date where everything about it completely exceeded expectations? Where there could easily have been an awkward pause, or a portion of the date that was just boring, but then a miracles happens and none it occurs. This is the essence of what took place with The Avengers. Which is why it’s not surprising the movie obliterated box office records with a $200.3 million earning in its first US weekend.
To put things in perspective, The Avengers beat out Harry Potter and The Dark Knight, both by more than $30 million in its first domestic weekend. The previous record belonged to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which earned $169 million in its first Friday-Sunday run. While it didn’t set a record for Friday, which is still held by Potter with $91.1 million, it still pulled in $80 million which is quite impressive for early May when school is still in session for most. However, it set gross records for both Saturday & Sunday.
While this was the first weekend the movie debuted in the states, many countries and territories were going into their second Avengers weekend. Lumping all of the international figures together, the movie has generated $441 million in revenue for all the showings overseas. If you’ve been keeping up with the math, it leaves The Avengers Disney sitting on top of a $641 million haul thus far in revenue. Which makes the below image apt.
(image)
While $641 million is what Lone Starr from Spaceballs refers to as a ‘shit-load of money’, the financial forecast for the next weekend is hurting my brain. The Avengers is set to make $1 billion total in revenue by next Sunday. When Disney bought out Marvel, they wrote a check for $4 billion. So while Disney’s profit from The Avengers going into the weekend won’t be $1 billion, it’s incredible to think their projected revenue will be 1/4th of the entire bill paid for the Marvel brand. Disney has been accused of many things throughout the years, but dumb investments isn’t one of them.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Avengers, and there’s a good chance I’ll double dip to go see it again sometime this week. While it isn’t the best movie ever, I really do think it is the most amazing we’ve seen thus far. It pushes the envelope of not only what we should expect from comic book movies, but blockbuster films in general. When all is said in done, we’ll be placing the movie aside King Kong, Star Wars, and Jurassic Park in terms of all time great film spectacles.
Just in case you’re still under that proverbial rock, here’s the latest Avengers trailer. Even it doesn’t do the full movie justice.