"The Avengers" shatters opening weekend record with $200.3 million

Marvel's "The Avengers" didn't just break the opening weekend record set last year by "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II" it crushed it. The official weekend estimate is now a mind-boggling $200.3 million with some analysts suggesting that Disney and Marvel are actually low-balling the final number. The box office behemoth earned its haul by attracting an "Avatar"-like audience composed of men and women, teens and adults, couples on dates and scores of families as well. It's Saturday take of $69.7 million set an all-time Saturday record and represented a scant 13% drop from Friday's gargantuan $80.5 million. It's the first movie to earn more than $200 million dollars in its first 3 days of release in the domestic market.

Take a bow folks. You've earned it.

At $641 million worldwide and considering that it's just started it's domestic run as well as its run in Russia and Communist China and that it hasn't opened yet in the lucrative Japanese market the film is poised to rocket past the 1 billion mark. These must be heady days at Disney and especially Marvel, which bet the farm on their superhero movie convergence strategy several years ago and are now watching it pay off in spectacular fashion.