Even though Will Smith, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones and the rest of the Men in Black III crew have serious reason to celebrate this Memorial Day weekend, beyond the fact that living in America grants them the freedom to make cartoonish movies about time traveling space alien bugs and the threats they pose to Earth’s security, they are at the beginning of their moneymaking journey. Joss Whedon and Marvel’s The Avengers, on the other hand, is full-steam ahead and knocking down seemingly every record in its path.
When the dust settles, it will be MiB3 standing as the first film to topple The Avengers, bringing in $55 million in its Friday-to-Sunday run, with one more day left in the holiday weekend. Sony Pictures estimates the Will Smith-led family film will have notched in the area of $70 million domestically and $202 million worldwide over the four-day weekend, making it the second film of the summer to find bonafide box office success. Speaking of films that didn’t, Battleship, Dark Shadows and The Dictator all came in right around $10 million, none of which doing anything but reeling in the wake of a third film that released nearly 10 years after its closest predecessor. It’s not exactly The Hangover: Part II‘s $100 million dollar Memorial Day weekend from last year, but there’s evidence enough that ten years on, Men in Black is still a solid draw.
As for Marvel’s summer darling, The Avengers became the fastest film to make it to the $500 million mark this weekend, crossing the threshold by tacking on another $37 million from Friday to Sunday. It now sits at #4 on the all-time domestic earnings chart, which can be seen below:
- Avatar – $760m
- Titanic – $658m
- The Dark Knight – $533m
- The Avengers – $513m
- Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace – $474m
And now, the weekend’s top five, courtesy of Box Office Mojo.
- Men in Black III – $55.0m
- The Avengers – $36.9m
- Battleship – $10.8m
- The Dictator – $9.6m
- Chernobyl Diaries – $8.0m
Next week, Men in Black III and The Avengers come under fire from Snow White and The Huntsman, providing Universal a chance to crawl out from under the massive weight of the Battleship wreckage and get in the box office game.