‘Men in Black’ bumps ‘Avengers’ at North American box office
LOS ANGELES, May 28 — The third “Men in Black” alien action comedy bumped the mighty “Avengers” from the top of movie box office charts through yesterday and was likely to dominate cinemas over the rest of the Memorial Day weekend.
“MIB 3”, starring Will Smith, racked up US$55 million (RM173.2 million) in the United States and Canada from Friday through to yesterday, according to studio estimates.
Tommy Lee Jones at the premiere of “Men In Black 3” in New York, May 23, 2012. — Reuters file picThe movie also topped box offices in 104 countries around the world, and is expected to haul in a global US$202 million over the four-day holiday weekend, distributor Sony Pictures said.
It is the first “Men in Black” film to reach cinemas in 10 years, and the best performing film since the franchise began in 1997.
In “MIB 3”, Smith returns to his role as Agent J, half of a secret-agent duo that keeps order among aliens disguised as humans and living on Earth. Tommy Lee Jones plays his partner, Agent K.
The new instalment finds J travelling back to the 1960s to save a younger version of K, portrayed by Josh Brolin.
“MIB 3” knocked superhero team “The Avengers” to second place after three weeks at No. 1.
The global, billion-dollar blockbuster collected US$37 million in North American cinemas from Friday through to yesterday. It also became the fastest film to cross the US$500 million domestic threshold, getting there in 23 days and shattering the 32-day record set by the 2009 film “Avatar”, which went on to become the world’s highest-grossing movie of all time.
In third place, board game-inspired action movie “Battleship”, brought in US$10.7 million during its second weekend in cinemas.
Sacha Baron Cohen’s spoof “The Dictator” took the fourth spot with US$9.6 million through Sunday, pushing new low-budget horror film “Chernobyl Diaries” into fifth place with US$8 million.
Total figures for the US Memorial Day long weekend will be released today.
Sony Corp’s movie studio released “Men in Black 3”. “The Avengers” was distributed by Walt Disney Co’s Marvel Studios. Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros studios distributed “Chernobyl Diaries”. “Battleship” was released by Universal Studios, a unit of Comcast Corp. Viacom Inc’s Paramount Studios distributed “The Dictator”. — Reuters
