Weekend Box Office: 'Avengers' Has the Biggest Opening of All Time

UPDATE: The Monday actuals reveal that "The Avengers" has set an even bigger record, bringing in a massive $207.1 million. Clearly, word of mouth caught up with the movie and brought in even bigger audiences on Sunday.

There was speculation in the weeks leading up to the release of "The Avengers" that the movie would match or even pass the $155 million made by "The Hunger Games" in its opening weekend. As we drew nearer to the U.S. release and saw the massive numbers overseas, that became even more of a possibility.

Now that the movie is out and the numbers for the weekend are in, it turns out that "The Avengers" did indeed pass "The Hunger Games" in its opening weekend gross. In fact, it passed "The Dark Knight" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" too, and became the biggest opener of all time.

But "Avengers," being the big, epic superhero team-up movie that it is, was not content to just break the previous record of $169.2 million set by the final "Harry Potter" film: it wanted to smash it, Hulk-style.

So how much did "The Avengers" make? A ridiculous amount: $200.3 million, give or take a couple mil. That beats the previous record by about $30 million, which, of course, is absolutely nuts. Even crazier is the fact that the movie already earned $441 million overseas over the last week, putting the global cumulative total at an unholy $641.8 million after just three days in the States. "Avengers" should reach $1 billion globally with ease.

"Avengers" was bound to bring in the big bucks, as it combines the superheroes from the successful Marvel series, including Captain America, Thor, Hulk and Iron Man, each of whom have had their own movie. The flick was boosted by overwhelmingly positive reviews (93% among critics on Rotten Tomatoes) and tons of social media buzz. Chances are you have had Facebook friends posting about how much they loved the movie already. It is also worth mentioning that IMAX theaters posted record sales on this one, and it had the benefit of 3D, which "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" had, but "The Hunger Games" and "The Dark Knight" did not.

So, Warner Bros., you guys will be working harder on that Justice League movie, now won't you?

1. "The Avengers" - $207.1 million
2. "Think Like a Man" - $8 million ($73M)
3. "The Hunger Games" - $5 million ($380.7M)
4. "The Lucky One" - $5.5 million ($40M)
5. "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" - $5.4 million ($18.6M)