Joss Whedon’s The Avengers surpassed expectations again to post an estimated $103 million second frame, the first time that a film has earned over $100 million in two consecutive weekends.  The Avengers fell a very modest 50% as it totally eclipsed newcomer Dark Shadows, which opened below expectations at $28.8 million.  The Avengers’ 50% drop is the smallest decline ever for a film that posted one of the top ten openings of all time.  

The Avengers also bested Dark Shadows overseas as it earned $95.4 million bringing its foreign cumulative to $628.9 million versus a fairly tepid debut of $36.7 million for Dark Shadows.  Add in The Avengers’ domestic cumulative of $373.2 million and it is apparent that the Marvel Studios’ superhero team-up film has earned over a billion dollars worldwide.  Because it opened in a few territories on Wednesday, The Avengers was not the fastest film to reach that mark—Avatar did it in seventeen days versus 19 for The Avengers.

 

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): May 11 -13, 2012
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./ Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	The Avengers	$103,163,000	4,349	$23,721	$373,182,000	2
2	Dark Shadows	$28,805,000	3,755	$7,671	$28,805,000	1
3	Think Like a Man	$6,300,000	2,052	$3,070	$81,917,000	4
4	The Hunger Games	$4,400,000	2,531	$1,738	$386,902,000	8
5	The Lucky One	$4,055,000	2,839	$1,428	$53,721,000	4
6	The Pirates! Band of Misfits	$3,200,000	3,079	$1,039	$23,104,000	3
7	The Five-Year Engagement	$3,100,000	2,569	$1,207	$24,377,000	3
8	The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel	$2,650,000	178	$14,888	$3,723,000	2
9	Chimpanzee	$1,624,000	1,559	$1,042	$25,586,000	4
10	Girl in Progress	$1,350,000	322	$4,193	$1,350,000	1

 

The Avengers is setting a torrid box office pace that has already put it in rarefied territory, and which will make it very difficult indeed for other films, even Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, to match its performance (see "Final Numbers: 'The Avengers' Debut=$207,428,708"). The Avengers has now earned more than The Dark Knight, making it the #1 box office champion comic book movie of all time (not adjusted for inflation).  The Avengers is currently #11 on the all-time world box office and it should move well into the Top 10 before it’s through.

 

Meanwhile analysts were predicting that Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows would end up in the $35-$40 million range, and the soft $28.8 debut is a troublesome sign for Warner Bros., which spent $100 million on the feature film version of the gothic soap opera.  Dark Shadows drew an older audience as 73% of the crowd was over 25 with females making up 57% of the debut weekend attendees. Warner Bros. is hoping that with the male-skewing Battleship and Men in Black 3 opening the next two weekends, Dark Shadows will be able to attract more females over the next few weeks.  Critics, however, aren’t helping very much. In spite of some high profile favorable notices in the New York Times and elsewhere, the critical consensus was not favorable as the film earned just a 41% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.  Audiences weren’t much kinder giving the film a sub-par "B-" CinemaScore.

 

Once again, thanks to The Avengers, there wasn’t a lot of oxygen left in the room for other films, but Sony’s surprisingly successful comedy Think Like a Man added $6.5 million, which was good enough for third place and brought movie’s cumulative to $82.1 million.  It now appears that this movie, which targets the African-American audience, has an excellent shot to earn over $100 million domestically.

 

Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games also held up well earning $4.3 million, and bringing its year-to-date domestic total to $387 million, which keeps its domestic total ahead of The Avengers (for a few more days anyway). Warner Bros.’ Nicholas Sparks romance, The Lucky One, came in fifth place followed by Universal’s romcom The Five Year Engagement, which narrowly nosed out Aardman Animation’s Pirates! Band of Misfits, which has earned $23 million in three weekends.

 

Although it was only in 178 theaters, the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which appeals to older viewers with a cast filled with Oscar-winning and nominated actors of a certain age, came in a #8, validating Fox Searchlight’s counter-programming strategy that opened the film now to provide older viewers with an alternative to the endless stream of summer blockbusters, rather than holding it for the "Oscar" movie season, which typically means a Q4 release to keep films fresh in Oscar voters’ minds.

 

Check back next week to find out how Universal's $200 million would-be blockbuster Battleship, which has earned $215 million overseas, but has more than its share of detractors among box office analysts, fares when it opens domestically and goes head-to-head with another alien invasion movie (The Avengers).  No one expects The Avengers to three-peat, but this film has surpassed expectations at every point so far.