’Avengers: Infinity War,’ with an army of stars including Robert Downey Jr. (seen here at the film’s Hollywood premiere) as Ironman, continued its record-setting box-office dominance this weekend. — AFP Photo |
LOS ANGELES — Avengers: Infinity War flexed its considerable muscle anew this weekend in North American theaters, pulling in a robust US$112.5 million and leaving other top films in its dust, according to industry estimates.
The three-day take by the Disney/Marvel superhero epic gave it the second-highest second weekend of all time, behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Only five movies have hit the $100 million mark in their second weekends, according to Variety.com.
Avengers sees a veritable army of superheroes – including Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Ironman (Robert Downey Jr.) and Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) – joining forces to save the universe from powerful purple alien Thanos (Josh Brolin).
Globally, Avengers has hit the $1 billion mark in just 11 days – the fastest ever – and it has yet to open in China.
But with its enormous success, Avengers has left little oxygen for its competitors. The second-highest North American grosser, new rom-com Overboard, trailed in its distant wake at just $14.8 million. Anna Faris and Eugenio Derbez star in the Lionsgate remake of a 1987 movie about a struggling single mother who persuades a rich playboy with amnesia that they are married.
In third spot was Paramount’s sci-fi horror film A Quiet Place, at $7.6 million. The near-wordless production stars actor/director John Krasinski and his real-life wife Emily Blunt as a couple silently struggling to protect their family from blind aliens that track their prey by sound.
STX Films’ comedy I Feel Pretty, starring Amy Schumer as a self-conscious woman who suffers a head injury and then sees herself as ravishingly beautiful, was fourth at $4.9 million.
And in fifth was Rampage, from Warner Bros., at $4.6 million. The film follows Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson as a primatologist who befriends an albino gorilla, which grows to enormous size after a rogue experiment before teaming up with Johnson against invading monsters.
Rounding out the top 10 were:
Tully ($3.2 million)
Black Panther ($3.1 million)
Truth or Dare ($1.9 million)
Super Troopers 2 ($1.8 million)
Bad Samaritan ($1.8 million). — AFP