The Avengers passed yet another box office milestone today as the Joss Whedon-directed feature became the fourth highest grossing film in U.S. history with a rolling tally that now stands at $476.7 million. The spot’s previous holder was The Phantom Menace–a Star Wars prequel which only held the spot for a few months as its 3D re-release gave the movie a $43.5 million boost to $474.5 million.
This latest news surrounding the Marvel blockbuster comes at the front end of a Memorial Day weekend which could easily add another $45+ million to the film’s domestic haul, bringing the film very close to passing The Dark Knight’s $533.3 million for third all-time. While usurping Batman looks to be a certainty, Titanic and Avatar may be too far away at this point in time given that both are over the $650 million mark on the domestic level.
As for the worldwide scale, this is a similar situation. The Avengers currently ranks fourth at the global box office with $1.23 billion which is just $100 million behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II and about a billion behind Titanic.