Top Super Hero Movie Opening Weekends Of All Time
By Nick Tylwalk
Okay, so we may have been a little carried away when we said Captain America: The Winter Soldier could make $110 million or more during its opening weekend. After pulling in an estimated $37 million on Saturday, Box Office Mojo is thinking it will end up around $96 million after three days of release, albeit with some chance to top $100 million.
That’s still impressive and would still easily be a record for any movie opening in April. Put it up against other opening weekends for super hero movies, though, and it still ends up falling short of the top 10 by an eight-digit amount.
Yes, you need to make $115 million during opening weekend to play with the big boys of super hero movies, at least these days. In case you needed any proof that comic book characters are big business on the big screen, their power to get people to the theaters right away is impressive indeed. It’s not limited to one franchise or studio either, as Marvel, Warner Bros. and Sony are all represented with multiple movies.
Two of the Spider-Man movies took advantage of their true summer release dates to open on Tuesday or Wednesday instead of Friday, so they may have “cheated” just a bit. Still, it’s safe to say those flicks would have made this list regardless given how popular the wall-crawler has proven — and whether it’s Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield under the mask.
The top 10 is also a sign of the times, as movies in general make a higher percentage of their overall domestic box office on opening weekend than they did even two decades ago. As a result, every movie on this list is among the top 11 highest grossing super movies ever, with only the first Iron Man (the number eight super hero movie in total box office) failing to make it. It “only” made $102.1 million in its first three days, probably because moviegoers didn’t know how awesome Robert Downey Jr. was going to be in the title role.
But enough analysis. Here are the top super hero movie opening weekends of all time based on their domestic earnings (and rounded to the nearest tenth of a million dollars):
1. The Avengers, $207.4 million
2. Iron Man 3, $174.1 million
3. The Dark Knight Rises, $160.9 million
4. The Dark Knight, $158.4 million
5. Spider-Man 2, $152.4 million (Wednesday open)
6. Spider-Man 3, $151.1 million
7. The Amazing Spider-Man, $137.0 million (Tuesday open)
8. Man of Steel, $128.7 million
9. Iron Man 2, $128.1 million
10. Spider-Man, $114.8 million