Upon opening last night, Marvel’s The Avengers took the rank of largest midnight opener for any superhero film beating out The Dark Knight and taking the rank of the eight largest midnight opener. The movie brought in a whooping $18.7 million on it’s first night alone! Well have to wait and see how well The Dark Knight Rises does when it hits theaters in July. Read more below.
The Avengers is the superhero world’s new box-office king—or, at least it is at midnight.
In 12 a.m. Friday screenings, the mega-Marvel movie grossed $18.7 million, according to its studio, a new high for the genre.
To recap: The Dark Knight just got beat.
The Avengers’ take is Hollywood’s eighth-biggest ever for a midnight debut.The night-owl gross helped push the film, teaming Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man with a half-dozen other Marvel heroes, past the $300 million mark worldwide.
The midnight opening is a box-office category that’s very nearly been the exclusive domain of films based on young-adult best-sellers, from Harry Potter to Twilight to The Hunger Games, which narrowly retains its edge as the year’s biggest 12 a.m. movie.
The previous best for a superhero movie was The Dark Knight’s then-record $18.5 million.
The Avengers bested The Dark Knight with the help of 3-D ticket prices, as well as 2012-priced 2-D and IMAX ones. The 3-D format also aided The Avengers in closing the gap in sold-out screenings with The Hunger Games, which has been shown only in 2-D and IMAX.
With the midnight superhero record in its pocket, The Avengers will next set its sights on the Batman epic’s opening-weekend mark of $158.4 million, the second-biggest of all time. The Hunger Games is right there in third place with a $152.5 million debut.
“The key will be Saturday’s number,” Hollywood.com box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian said.
The Avengers has widely been expected to gross about $150 million domestically by Sunday.
Here’s a complete rundown of the top 10 all-time midnight debuts, as compiled per Hollywood.com stats:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, $43.5 million
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 1, $30.3 million
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, $30 million
The Twilight Saga: New Moon, $26.3 million
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, $24 million
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, $22.2 million
The Hunger Games, $19.7 million
The Avengers, $18.7 million
The Dark Knight, $18.5 million
Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, $16.9 million
