The Avengers nets biggest opening weekend of all time

The Avengers has blazed a trail through the U.S box office, taking a staggering $200.3 million in its opening weekend to leave previous records crushed into a heap of smouldering rubble.

After saturating the media with promotional material, everybody had anticipated Marvel would end up with a commercial hit on their hands, but the final performance has trumped even the most optimistic of forecasts.

The film beat Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 ’s existing record by more than $30 million, which when added to the current international gross, should bring the film’s overall take to around $575 million worldwide.

Needless to say, the higher ticket prices afforded by the film’s 3D format have gone some way to reeling in such an impressive take, but by anybody’s standards, Joss Whedon’s superhero blowout has been an immense success.

After setting up their movie with countless origin stories across a number of years, Marvel have certainly played the long game with The Avengers , but even the most starry-eyed executive couldn’t have hoped for such a payoff. Now, about that sequel…