Articles

May 6, 2012
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY BOXOFFICE: “The Avengers” Rips Through the Roof – 5/5/12

 

 

So much for front-loading.

The preliminary Saturday number for THE AVENGERS (Disney), as reported by Deadline, is genuinely extraordinary.  If it holds up, Avengers will have one of the best 2d day holds of a mega-opening film in history, and be well on its way to the best opening weekend ever.  The current report has Avengers grossing $68M on Saturday, an incredible drop of only 15%.  Technically, that’s not quite record-breaking:  the original Spider-Man, Alice In Wonderland and Shrek 3 all increased on their respective Day 2s (none of those, however, had giant Thursday midnight grosses, which change the Friday/Saturday dynamic), while Iron Man 2 slid 10%, and Spider-Man 3 was down 14%.  But Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2, various Twilights, The Dark Knight, and The Hunger Games all dropped 20-50+%. 


Avengers already has, by a long shot, the best 2-day gross in US history with $148M, beating Deathly Hallows Part 2 and its $133.5M.  It’s now almost certain to surpass Deathly Hallows 2‘s $169.2M for the best opening weekend of all time, possibly getting as high as $185-190M.  This is all, of course, on top of the movie’s mammoth international gross (not yet including an opening in Japan), which could put the movie in the neighborhood of $575-600M worldwide by the end of Sunday.

So… wow.  Nothing else in theatres will even gross 5% of what Avengers is earning this weekend.  THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS (Sony) and THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT (Universal) are both headed for 50% drops, while SAFE (Lionsgate/Summit) and THE RAVEN (Relativity) will plummet 60% or more.  Comparatively speaking, THE HUNGER GAMES (Lionsgate/Summit) looks good with about a 45% drop, which should bring it to the brink of beating the final Harry Potter still ahead of it, perhaps not quite reaching that goal for another day or so.

Stay with SHOWBUZZDAILY all weekend for updated boxoffice and analysis!

 



About the Author

Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."