Avengers storm to top of US box office - AsiaOne

LOS ANGELES - Earth's mightiest comic book heroes brought to life in The Avengers stomped the opposition on Sunday to storm victoriously straight to the top of the North American box office on their opening weekend.

Directed by screen cult favourite Joss Whedon, the Walt Disney adventure movie brings together Marvel Comics heroes Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man and Thor as they help save Earth from bad guy, Loki.

The Avengers raked in some US$200.3 million (S$249 million), zooming straight to the top of the box-office leader board, industry figures showed on Sunday, with Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor) reprising roles from their earlier stand-alone movies.

Romantic comedy Think Like A Man, which had topped the North American box office for two weeks in a row, was kicked into second place earning US$8 million, according to Exhibitor Relations. That brings its three-week total to US$73.0 million, the box office tracker said.

Smash action hit The Hunger Games remained in third place in its seventh week on the big screen. The movie, starring Jennifer Lawrence, earned US$5.7 million and has raked in more than US$380 million since its opening.

Legions of fans have flocked to see the film, based on a book by Suzanne Collins, in which a teenage girl played by Lawrence fights to win a deadly television reality show featuring children in a post-apocalyptic world.

Tearjerker drama The Lucky One, an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks book starring Zac Efron as a United States (US) soldier back from Iraq, held onto fourth place. The movie made US$5.5 million in its third weekend.

In fifth place was The Pirates! Band of Misfits, a children's animation film from the studio that produced the Wallace and Gromit series earning US$5.4 million on its second weekend and moving down from second place.

The Five-Year Engagement, starring Emily Blunt and Jason Segel, dropped to sixth place, with US$5 million.

The Raven starring John Cusack as 19th century American author Edgar Allan Poe, which has had mediocre reviews, lingered in seventh place with US$2.5 million.

And the Jason Statham action flick Safe dropped down from sixth to eighth place with US$2.4 million.

Chimpanzee, a true-life, child-friendly adventure about a special chimp in the jungles of Ivory Coast also from the Walt Disney stable, sank to ninth, with US$2.3 million.

While the Farrelly brothers' comedy The Three Stooges rounded out the week's top 10, taking bottom place in its fourth week. The tribute to the legendary US comedy trio brought in US$1.8 million.