The early tracking numbers for Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, which opens nationwide on May 4th, have come in as strong as most Hollywood analysts were predicting.  So far it has earned solid ratings--23% “First Choice” and 62% “Definite Interest” among all audience groups, a good indication that The Avengers could be a three or four-quadrant hit.  Right now Disney is fine-tuning its marketing and trying to acquire more screens and more showings for the film’s opening weekend.  Early shows, including a special 5-film Avengers Movie Marathon, are selling out (see "'Avengers' Movie Marathon Sells Out").

 

Disney is expecting big numbers from Thursday midnight screenings, but The Avengers' ability to score its biggest opening since Iron Man 2 debuted to $128 million may depend on how willing theater owners will be to staff extra showings during the film’s opening weekend.  The perception is that Disney bungled the marketing of Andrew Stanton’s John Carter, and since The Avengers is the first Marvel Studios film that Disney is marketing and distributing (Paramount handled those chores for the previous Marvel films), the pressure is on the Mouse House to get it right this time.  Of course with its bevy of popular heroes (and solid established stars) The Avengers would appear to be a much easier film to market than John Carter.

 

Deadline reports that interest in The Avengers is particularly high among males, but it is also solid with women.  There is little doubt that The Avengers early May release is perfect for this sort of event movie, which will mark the real start of Hollywood’s all important summer season.  Disney’s marketing task is to make the movie appeal to a wider mainstream audience without alienating the hardcore fanboys.

 

The movie had its Hollywood premiere last night and like a number of other major summer blockbusters (including Marvel Studios’ Thor last year) The Avengers is opening overseas first on April 24th and 25th in Australia, France, the UK, Russia, Spain, Russia, and Mexico, so we will have an inkling about how big The Avengers will be even before it debuts here in the States.