Weekend Box-Office: May 11-13, 2012

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

The Avengers dominate the globe!

Clearly what the world needs right now is a little heroism, and a lot of fun. And the world is willing to pay for it!

In its second week, Marvel’s grand gathering THE AVENGERS brought in another $103.7 million, Hulk-smashing the record for second-weekend total (previously held by AVATAR with $75.6M, followed closely by THE DARK KNIGHT with $75.1M).

That’s a drop of around 50% from last weekend, which ordinarily would seem like an average fall for any movie (genre or otherwise), but when your movie broke the domestic record on its opening weekend there’s certainly not much to complain about. The movie’s 10-day North American total stands tall and triumphant with $373.1 million.

In addition, Joss Whedon’s quippy Loki-fighters have already hammered past the colossal $1 BILLION mark in global ticket sales! That doesn’t yet put THE AVENGERS in the Top 10 all-time worldwide moneymakers, but Steve, Tony, Bruce and the gang will surely knock their way up that chart like there’s delicious shawarma waiting at the top.

It obviously wasn’t the best time to be going up against the costumed champions, as Johnny Depp and Tim Burton’s latest team-up DARK SHADOWS can attest. The only major new release of the weekend could only scare up $28.8 million in the shadow of Marvel’s superteam.

That opening’s below even Depp’s vocal-throwing and performance-captured CG lizard RANGO, which started out with $38M, but still far above THE RUM DIARY ($5.1M) and THE TOURIST ($16.4M), and even better than PUBLIC ENEMIES ($25.2M). DARK SHADOWS did amass an additional $36.7M from overseas crowds, but it’s still a relatively bleak debut considering the reported $150M budget and Depp’s A-list status.

But don’t feel too bad for Johnny — he’s got three movies on that aforementioned all-time box office list (two PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEANs and ALICE IN WONDERLAND). Although expect that last one to slip away as THE AVENGERS blast their way up the list in the coming weeks.

There wasn’t much excitement on the rest of the chart, with the remainders battling for whatever leftover dollars they could grab. THINK LIKE A MAN is still holding its own, and THE HUNGER GAMES continues its crawl toward the anticipated $400M domestic mark (it’s at $623M worldwide).

THE RAVEN, SAFE and THE THREE STOOGES made their exit from the list this week as Fox Searchlight took advantage of the counterprogramming opportunity to expand the elders-in-India comedy THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL on 150 more screens, giving it the second-highest per-screen average in the Top 10. Lionsgate also brought out their own limited-release alternative, the Eva Mendes drama GIRL IN PROGRESS, which squeaked into the tenth slot.

Next weekend brings a few new choices such as Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest THE DICTATOR (on Wednesday), the expensive alien-invasion game-adaptation BATTLESHIP, and the maternal comedy WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING. And there’s always just seeing THE AVENGERS again. What did you think about DARK SHADOWS? VOTE HERE!