The Weekend Box Office: ‘Avengers’ Repeat, ‘Dark Shadows’ Debuts 2nd

It seems that the greatest superhero team of all-time has conquered the world. Through just 19 days in theaters (and just 10 days in the United States), The Avengers has reached $1 billion worldwide, ranking 11^th all-time, but on pace to eventually surpass 2009’s Avatar and 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. On the domestic front, The Avengers, unsurprisingly, finished on top in its second weekend, with the Johnny Depp-starred/Tim Burton-directed Dark Shadows coming in a distant second place.

Hit the jump for a full rundown of this weekend’s box office results.

The Avengers dropped over 50 percent from last weekend; however, even that wasn’t enough to stop the film from finishing number one. The superhero team-up made $103 million dollars in its second week, which is the best second weekend ever, beating Avatar’s $75.6 million from 2009.

According to Box Office Mojo, The Avengers was the fastest movie to $300 million and $350 million, and has the highest domestic eight, nine, and ten-day grosses. Estimates say that by the end of next week, The Avengers will pass The Hunger Games as 2012’s most successful movie and by the end of its run the film should sit at least at third on the all-time domestic box office. With a production budget of about $220 million, The Avengers is undeniably a huge success of Marvel Studios and Disney alike.

In second place was Dark Shadows with $28.8 million, which, compared to other Depp/Burton team-ups, is definitely a disappointment. No doubt due in most part to the large shadow cast by The Avengers, the film’s opening paled in comparison to 2010’s Alice in Wonderland ($116 million) and even 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ($56 million). With everything working against the film, the $28.8 million gross is somewhat impressive, though with a production of around $150 million, the film has a long way to becoming profitable. Worldwide, the film grossed about $36 million in 42 markets, which is outperforming Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Sony/Screen Gem’s Think Like a Man finished in third place this week, dropping 22 percent to $6.3 million. The ensemble comedy has made nearly $82 million through four weekends, eclipsing the film’s paltry $12 million production budget. Think Like a Man is easily one of the many successful films from Sony’s film division, many of which have come under the Screen Gems banner.

Three new films will try and stop The Avengers this upcoming weekend, with sci-fi/action flick Battleship, Sacha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator, and romantic comedy What to Expect When You’re Expecting all making their debut. On the Sony Pictures front, be sure to check out Men in Black 3, which releases May 25.