Though this holiday Labor Day weekend is, as usual, extremely quiet, there's one film out there setting a very ,very big box office record. The summer's undeniable box office champion The Avengers hit yet another milestone this weekend, having made $1.5 billion worldwide in its incredible run this summer.
It might have hit that point eventually anyway, but it didn't hurt that Marvel pushed the film back into 1700 theaters this weekend, which allowed it to gross an estimated $1.7 million over the weekend in United States, according to THR. By comparison, last weekend The Avengers played in just 123 theaters, and made a puny $115,335-- pretty stellar for a film in its 17th week of release, but not quite enough to push it past that $1.5 billion mark. The Avengers currently stands with $619,545,000 in domestic grosses, plus an addition $882,300,000 from foreign markets. I realize this joke has probably been made a billion and a half times this summer, but I can't help it-- that's a Lot schawarma.
But Tony Stark and company are still going to be behind the two biggest all-time box office champions, both internationally and worldwide. James Cameron's dual forces of Avatar and Titanic will retain the #1 and #2 spots, respectively, with Avatar notching an incredible $2.782 billion worldwide, and Titanic behind it with $2.185. Domestically The Avengers actually had a shot at overtaking Titanic, but a 3D re-release earlier this year added an extra $57 million to that film's total. It will be a few years before The Avengers can pull off its own 3D re-release, but who knows, they might go for it anyway; this battle is not won until the last Chtauri has left New York City!
In the meantime, you can do your part by catching The Avengers in your local theater, where it will be playing until next Thursday, September 6.
