Avengers: Infinity War Assembles A Massive US Box Office Launch

First there was talk that it would. Then the projects shifted to suggest that it might fall short. But it turns out the original chatter about Avengers: Infinity War was right, as the new Marvel movie broke box office records around the world. The latest superhero smash-up took in $250 million in the States alone, according to studio estimates.

If those figures hold – and we have no reason to suspect they won't – the that means the new Avengers outing has beaten the previous best domestic opening held by Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And given that Disney under-estimated previous Marvel releases, expect to see the final figure be higher. Internationally, the film opened in 72% of possible markets (with one or two biggies such as China still to come) and scored a massive $380 million for a $630 million worldwide launch. That hefty $300 million plus budget doesn't seem quite so daunting now.

With such a behemoth arriving, other companies were loathe to even try to counter-programme in wide release, and most of the other top 10 films saw a drop (with one notable exception, which we'll get to shortly). A Quiet Place was pushed back to second place, but still earned $10.6 million and is creeping towards $150 million so far domestically. I Feel Pretty stayed in third place with $8.1 million, while Rampage was shoved down to fourth on $7.1 million.

The other big winner for the weekend was another Marvel movie, as Black Panther's fortunes were boosted, presumably from people finding Infinity War sold out and heading to Wakanda for their superhero fix. Ryan Coogler's film leapt from eighth place back to fifth with $4.3 million, no small feat given it has been in the charts for 11 weeks now.

Super Troopers 2 slipped to sixth via $3.6 million, and horror pic Truth Or Dare fell to seventh and $3.2 million. Blockers was down to eighth, earning $2.9 million and Ready Player One took a three-place hit, landing ninth with $2.4 million. Traffik rounded out the top 10, taking home $1.6 million.