Marvel’s The Avengers Assembles A Record-Breaking Weekend – Biff Bam Pop’s Box Office Wrap-Up Report, Weekend Of May 4th, 2012

Wow.

I don’t think anybody saw this coming, even when it looked like Marvel’s The Avengers was on track for a record breaking weekend.

But this estimated number – totally unexpected.

All the details after the jump.

On Friday I’d predicted that The Avengers would not likely break Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows opening weekend record of $169 million. Well, if things stand as they’re being reported, not only did The Avengers break that record, it did it by over $30 million. That’s correct – Marvel’s The Avengers is the first film to score $200 million opening weekend. Unprecedented, unexpected, unheard of – throw in a few more un’s if you’ve got them. This is simply astounding. While fans have been waiting for this film since Iron Man began teasing things back in 2008, I think a huge amount of credit has to be placed in the hands of writer/director Joss Whedon, who crafted an event film with solid character moments and great action. If the reviews has not been as unanimously positive as they have been (currently 94% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes), I don’t think we would have seen quite these numbers. Marvel’s The Avengers has now made a total of $641 million around the world and could be well on it’s way to close to a billion dollar haul.

A few things to watch going forward – what will the drop be like week to week for the film? Could it have a $100 million plus second weekend? And how long will the new record last, with The Dark Knight Rises waiting in the wings?

As for the rest of the weekend, nothing remarkable to report. Think Like A Man was in second place with $8 million. The Hunger Games took third with $5.7 million. In fourth was The Lucky One with $5.5 million, and The Pirates! closed things out with $5.4 million. The Five-Year Engagement wound up in sixth with just $5.1 million.

So, to recap, here were our predictions:

1) The Avengers – $165 million
2) Think Like A Man – $11 million
3) The Pirates! – $8 million
4) The Five-Year Engagement – $6 million
5) The Hunger Games – $5 million

And the estimates:

1) The Avengers – $200.3 million
2) Think Like A Man – $8 million
3) The Hunger Games – $5.7 million
4) The Lucky One– $5.5 million
5) The Pirates! – $5.4 million

Next weekend sees the release of Tm Burton and Johnny Depp’s Dark Shadows, which no doubt will be facing a tough battle for audiences. Check back on Friday to see our predictions!