The first domestic box-office numbers are in with “The Avengers” pulling in $ 18.7 million at midnight screenings in theatres all across North America reports the trades.
That is about on par with the $ 18.5 million that “The Dark Knight” took in midnight runs in 2008. That film went on to gross $ 158.4 million for its opening weekend in the U.S., a number “The Avengers” is expected to match and potentially even exceed.
It’s a midnight run number easily bigger than any other Marvel Studios movie, but it’s not a record breaker. “The Hunger Games” took in $ 19.7 million back in March, while the current all time record holder is “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” which landed $ 43.5 million in its midnight showings.
After a week’s play overseas, ‘Avengers’ has now crossed the $ 300 million mark and will likely pass the half a billion dollar global tally sometime on Sunday.
Reviews remain strong – our own mashup of Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and IMDb scores give it a total of 79/100 which is the ninth highest review score for comic book adaptation, the highest for a Marvel Studios film, and the fourth best superhero movie behind only “The Dark Knight” (85.00), the original “Superman” (80.33) and Sony’s “Spider-Man 2” (80.33), but just ahead of “Sin City” (77.33) and “Batman Begins” (76.66).
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