It took four weekends, but a new film managed to beat The Avengers. That is about the only good thing being said right now about Men in Black III’s box office performance as the film only found $55 million in its first three days in release. The movie cost north of $200 million to make thanks to problems with production, so it would appear as if now Sony will fail to recoup its investment as the four-day weekend looks to be on pace for a meager $70 million–$10 million less than the studio’s own conservative estimates.
On the other side of things, The Avengers is still doing great. The movie brought in another $37 million for the period in question which makes it the fastest film to pass the half-billion mark in U.S. box office history. It took Marvel’s latest 23 days to accomplish this task compared to Avatar’s 32 although retention for the James Cameron film is the difference maker and the reason why The Avengers most likely does not have a shot at its all-time record of $760.5 million.
Other notable performances this weekend include Battleship dropping 58% to $10.8 million, Chernobyl Diaries‘ $8 million debut, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel expanding to $6.4 million in its fourth week of release.
Update 5/27: Sony released the Men in Black III international figures, and it would appear that the latest MiB is still a bit short of $200 million worldwide at $187 million. This also includes some Wednesday, Thursday hauls from early international roll outs. Getting down to business here, it looks as if the film will do a lot better than John Carter and Battleship financially, but could struggle to get up to the half-billion mark given its tough competition in the weeks ahead.