Breaking another record, "The Avengers" grossed a stunning $103.2 million during the weekend in North America, becoming the first movie to cross the $100 million mark in its sophomore outing.
Worldwide, "Avengers" expects to jump the $1 billion mark on Sunday after only 19 days, matching the speed record set by "Avatar" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2."
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With "Avengers" doing such massive numbers, the news wasn't so good for Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's latest collaboration. "Dark Shadows" debuted to a muted $28.8 million domestically, putting pressure on the Warner Bros. film to have strong legs.
Prerelease tracking had suggested that Burton's campy adaptation of the classic vampire soap opera would earn $35 million to $40 million. The movie only received a B- CinemaScore and skewed noticeably older, with 73 percent of the audience older than 25. Females made up 57 percent of the audience.
Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman said the studio certainly wanted "Dark Shadows" to do more but says the film will benefit from being female-centric in the coming weeks as "Battleship" and "Men in Black 3" open.
"We're hoping that the next few weeks set the pace for where the movie is going," Fellman said.
Story from THR: 'Avengers' could reach $1 billion by Sunday
"Avengers" also beat "Dark Shadows" overseas, grossing $95.4 million in its third weekend for a foreign cume of $628.9 million. Domestically, "Avengers' " cume through Sunday was $373.2 million, becoming the fastest film to reach $300 million.
The performance of Joss Whedon's superhero pic is a substantial victory for Marvel Studios and its parent company Disney, propelling Disney's film division to No. 1 in domestic market share as of Sunday.
"Avengers' " global box office already has surpassed the global box-office totals of setup films "Captain America: The First Avenger" ($364 million), "Thor" ($449 million), "Iron Man" ($585 million) and "Iron Man 2" ($624 million).
Internationally, "Avengers" already has eclipsed the three "Spider-Man" pics and "The Dark Knight" to become the most successful superhero title of all time.
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