Its May 5, 2012, do you know what that means? Its means Marvel's Avengers was finally released in North America and is out across the world! Earlier yesterday, the opening day estimates for Avengers was at $65 million, but that was before west coast night showings; now the official estimate via Deadline is $80.5 million! That gives Avengers the second highest opening day and Friday- ever. The opening weekend record looks pretty certain now.
So why is The Avengers enjoying massive success? Iron Man 2 decreased from Iron Man 1, Thor and Captain America couldn't pass $200 million, even with 3D, attendance for The Incredible Hulk was down from the disappointing 2003 version, and Hawkeye and Black Widow did not even get their own movies, even though Black Widow was a big part of Iron Man 2. So why is Avengers all of a sudden a contender to break many records?
1. May - Avengers opened at just the right time; the first weekend of May is prime, especially for these type of movies. Spider Man opened on this weekend 10 years ago and today marks the day it became the first movie ever to make $100 million in one weekend. The Avengers is facing little competition and wont have many threats for a while. Summer is getting closer and colleges have let out and grade schools will be letting out soon (im done May 24th!).
2. Characters - A good thing about Marvels characters; they're colorful. Iron Man is red, Hulk is green, Cap Am is blue, even Loki has vibrant attire. Colorful characters are good for younger viewers. Having a bleak, typical tone can make a movie feel dark and less engaging, but these vibrant characters are easier on the eyes and are more attractive. They are also three dimensional characters, which keeps attention and interest up.
3. Tone - Avengers is not too graphic for younger viewers, which gives this a leg up over The Dark Knight Rises; the family audiences will likely be lower as that movie will have a more serious tone and violence will be a little more graphic. Avengers also has humor; Avengers is dramatic and does have high
action violence, but it also has humor, something that's a win with audiences. The
witty, one-liner, action humor is perfect, especially for this; Tony
Stark alone makes the money worth it. That gives this another leg up over The Dark Knight Rises, which is definitely more serious, but that movie will be more grounded.
5. Marketing - Id give Disney an A+ for marketing; The Avengers is on everything; my local radio station, candy wrappers, cardboard cutouts, the internet, and TV- the ads, especially the Dr. Pepper, Target, and Red Barron ones have been amazing. Adults see these and kids have the toys, that raises the awareness; kudos to Disney.
6. Ensemble - Having all these characters together is something that hasn't been tried in Hollywood before. What Marvel did so well was making all these characters familiar and connecting them to form Avengers. This strategy worked a lot better than just putting them all together without their former movies. Having all these characters together raises the scope which makes this more appealing.
7. Feedback - Avengers scored a 93% and 8/10 on RT, which for a summer blockbuster, is outstanding. Critics love it, and judging by moviegoer feedback on Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, Fandango, box office forums, and people I've spoken to personally, everyone is beyond pleased. This means that Avengers will have a long life in theaters.
A $400 million total is certain at this point, just how high it will go above that is a big question mark now; the sky's the limit. My OW and total prediction for Avengers is $185.4 million and near or above $440 million.
Go see Avengers this weekend, 2D or 3D, IMAX or conventional, just go; you will not be dissapointed! I mean its already made $500 million worldwide!
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