Avengers Sinks Battleship and Other Films

Weekend Recap: 5/18-20/2012

Once again, the weekend box office closed with The Avengers (review here) atop with a weekend gross of $55.1 million. That puts its domestic total at $457.1million, making it the sixth biggest movie in the U.S. ever, behind Star Wars Ep. IV ($461 million).

Internationally The Avengers has become the fourth biggest film ever with $1.18 billion, following only Harry Potter 7 Part 2 ($1.33 billion), Titanic ($2.18 billion), and Avatar ($2.78 billion).

Despite doing good business overseas when it was released a month ago, Battleship (review here) sank with a meager $25.4 million compared to its $200+ million production costs. Internationally it has made $226.8 million, so it has at least broken even and made some actual profit. This is bad news for star Taylor Kitsch in particular, whose John Carter (review here) absolutely tanked not too long ago. Maybe he’s not the star people thought…

Opening early on Wednesday, The Dictator (review here) did well considering the competition, grossing $17.4 million over the weekend with $24.4 million over all five days. In fourth place was Dark Shadows with a weekend take of $12.8 million for an overall total of $50.9 million, while What to Expect When You’re Expecting (review here) tanked with only $10.5 million. I have no idea why it wasn’t released last weekend, when Mother’s Day would have given it a considerable bump.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel continues to do great business in limited release, taking sixth place with $3.3 million from only 350 theaters, giving it the weekend’s second-best per-theater average and bringing its overall total to $8.2 million. The Hunger Games (review here) is still in theaters, adding $3 million to its total to $391.6 million.

Think Like a Man (review here) is also still adding to its gross, earning $2.7 million over the weekend for a total gross of $85.9 million. The Top Ten was rounded up by The Lucky One and The Pirates! Band of Misfits (review here) which both took in over $1 million for ninth and tenth place, respectively.

Here’s a snapshot of the Top Ten Weekend Films:

#	Title	Weekend Gross	Theater Average	Total Gross
1	Marvel’s The Avengers	$55.1 million	$12,958	$457.1 million
2	Battleship	$25.4 million	$6,870	$25.4 million
3	The Dictator	$17.4 million	$5,790	$24.5 million
4	Dark Shadows	$12.8 million	$3,400	$50.9 million
5	What to Expect When You’re Expecting	$10.5 million	$3,476	$10.5 million
6	The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel	$3.3 million	$9,181	$8.2 million
7	The Hunger Games	$3 million	$1,453	$391.6 million
8	Think Like a Man	$2.7 million	$1,568	$85.9 million
9	The Lucky One	$1.8 million	$880	$56.9 million
10	The Pirates! Band of Misfits	$1.5 million	$788	$25.4 million