Time for some celebratory Middle Eastern food: The Avengers has, by all preliminary reports, smashed the box office record for opening weekend grosses by a lead of $35 million. The previous record was held by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, at $169.2 million, which, yes, means that The Avengers pulled in $205 million dollars this weekend, not counting the $650 million it’s already pulled in overseas.
That means that, within this weekend and US audiences alone, The Avengers has almost recouped its operational budget.
Whedon made the blockbuster for a cool $220 million, so just give the film a few more days to recoup that and its marketing budget of $100 million. For comparison, The Hunger Games, highest grossing action film with a female lead, debuted with a $152 million opening weekend, and The Dark Knight with $158.
Basically, if Hollywood doesn’t let Joss Whedon do whatever he wants from now on… well, we’ll still think it’s just as super dumb as we always have.
