Weekend Box Office: May 11-13

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  The Avengers - $103.1 million

2.  Dark Shadows - $28.8 million

3.  Think Like a Man - $6.3 million

4.  The Hunger Games - $4.4 million

5.  The Lucky One - $4 million

6.  The Pirates! Band of Misfits - $3.2 million

7.  The Five-Year Engagement - $3.1 million

8.  The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - $2.6 million

9.  Chimpanzee - $1.6 million

10.  Girl in Progress - $1.3 million

Puny Dark Shadows...

It was a given that The Avengers was going to easily take first place in its second weekend, and that it would significantly Hulk-smash its only competition, the big-screen adaptation of Dark Shadows.  But damn, it wound up doing so in record-breaking fashion, earning an estimated $103.1 million.  That would make The Avengers the first film in history to earn more than $100 million in its second weekend, should those numbers hold up when the final grosses are tallied up tomorrow.  But even if it does fall below the $100 million mark, that would still make it the highest-grossing second weekend of all time, a record previously held by Avatar, which earned $75.6 million in its second weekend in 2009.

Domestically, The Avengers has earned $373 million, putting in second place for the year behind The Hunger Games' $386 million, which Avengers should overtake by the time you finish reading this article.  It also claimed records previously held by The Dark Knight to become the fastest to reach milestones of $300 and $350 million within its first 10 days of release.  Although, with The Dark Knight Rises waiting just around the corner, it's anyones guess how those records will shuffle around by the time the summer is done. 

Combined with overseas totals, The Avengers should pass the $1 billion mark this weekend, which, in just 19 days, will add another record to its growing list of box-office accomplishments.  So it goes without saying...this movie is HUGE.

And what of Dark Shadows?  Those middling reviews didn't help.  But in the end, it simply couldn't withstand competition from The Avengers and opened even lower than expected with $28.8 million.  It did a little better overseas with $36.7 million.  However, the outlook is not great for the $125 million film.

The other winner this weekend was The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which in limited release earned $2.6 million - that's a per-screen average of $14,888, which was second only to the $23,721 per-screen average of The Avengers.  The trailers for that one have been funny as hell, so it's no surprise that's been doing well.

Next weekend sees the releases of Battleship (which has already grossed $216 million overseas), The Dictator, and What to Expect When You're Expecting.  The TV ads in the US for Battleship have already declared it "the biggest movie of the year".  You're adorable, Battleship.