It took a team of superheroes to fend off an alien invasion and take over the weekend box office.

Marvel’s “The Avengers” posted an astonishing $200.3 million in its domestic debut, shattering many records and to place the film as the highest-grossing domestic debut of all time. It surpassed Warner Brothers Pictures’ “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 2” record of $169.2 million from last year.

And that’s not the only record that Hulk smashed into pieces.

According to Box Office Mojo, it was the fastest movie to reach the $100 million, $150 million and $200 million marks. In addition, it set a new record for the highest gross for a Saturday ($69.7 million) and Sunday ($50.1 million. And to top it off, it had the highest per-theater average ever for a nationwide release with $46,057.

One record it did not break was the new opening day record, which still belongs to the Harry Potter movie.

And, more records were broken overseas.

“The Avengers” opened internationally on April 25th and already crossed the $600 million mark globally on May 6—just 12 days in release. The film had the largest Marvel opening weekend in Russia with $17.9 million; largest opening in China with $17.4 million and the biggest opening weekends of all-time in Mexico, Brazil, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand and the Philippines.

Marvel assembled an all-star cast that included Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Clark Gregg, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders and Tom Hiddleston.

The film is about S.H.I.E.L.D. helping to form The Avengers to save the planet from Loki and his personal army.

There’s no doubt the film will break more records as audiences give it an excellent A+ CinemaScore and the critics agree with strong reviews (94 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes).

As icing on the cake—“The Avengers” accounted for 82.7 percent of the estimated $242 million box office earnings in the top 12 films this weekend.

And let’s discuss the rest of the weekend box office report.

In second place, “Think Like a Man” earned $8 million, a drop of 54.6 percent from the previous weekend. “The Hunger Games” placed third place with $5.7 million, a drop of 47.3 percent. The film has surpassed $380 million in the domestic box office ticket sales.

“The Luck One” stayed in fourth place with $5.51 million, a decrease of 49 percent from the previous weekend. And the animated “The Pirates! Band of Misfits”earned $5.4 million, a decrease of 51.5 percent.

So “The Avengers” got the summer started, but it’s not the only summer movie. For next weekend, Tim Burton’s “Dark Shadows” will make its opening weekend debut. Other films opening in limited release next weekend to include “Where Do We Go Now?” “God Bless America,’ “Hick,” and “Girl in Progress.”

Here is the WEEKEND BOX OFFICE REPORT for May 4-6, 2012:

Source: BoxOffice.com, Box Office Mojo

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