While some may have been willing to make an early declaration at Marvel’s The Avengers being a bomb because it couldn’t best Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2‘s record-setting midnight earnings, it’s looking like the superhero team may have the last laugh. After taking $18.7 million from midnight showings, the film went on to gross another $61.8 million on Friday to finish the day with approximately $80.5 million.
On Saturday, the comic-book movie release looks to have earned another $60 million to bring its two-day total to $140.5 million. Early box office prognosticating (like what weathermen do, but here it rains money) has it on track to finish the weekend with $175 million. If that figure holds, it would set a new record for an opening weekend, besting the final installment of the Boy Wizard versus the Nazi War Criminal (Ralph Fiennes).
Internationally the film opened last week and has accumulated $334.3 million in foreign receipts. This includes another $30 million from Friday showings. Add to the fact that it scored an A+ CinemaScore from American audiences and you can expect the Social Network to be lighting up like fireworks as WOM travels.
How hot is The Avengers this weekend? So hot, that Deadline reports that the AMC theater chain sold so many tickets opening day that its credit card processing system had a momentary lapse, causing delays in movie ticket and concessions transactions. This made Hulk very angry.
