People who claim television is dead as a medium are asked to look at viewership data for the Super Bowl, Grammys and even the “Two and a Half Men” season premiere.
People who make the same claim about cinema should pay attention to “The Avengers,” which set a box office record for its second weekend in release.
After crushing the opening weekend record with more than $200 million in receipts, it returned with a whopping $103.2 million, the best second weekend total in history.
It has accumulated more than $370 million in domestic receipts and is on pace to quickly unseat “The Hunger Games” as the top-grossing film of the year at some point in the next week.
That total easily overshadowed the opening mark for sole newcomer “Dark Shadows,” which opened to a lackluster $28.8 million. That total is beneath most estimates, which, at about $35 million, were already disappointing in comparison to the film’s big budget.
“Think Like a Man” ($6.3 million), “The Hunger Games” ($4.4 million) and “The Lucky One” ($4.1 million) completed the top five.
