"The Avengers" expected to earn $150 million on opening weekend

(CBS News) The highly-anticipated star-studded action film "The Avengers" is expected to open this weekend to at least $150 million in ticket sales, putting it among the top five biggest openings of all time.

Pictures: Summer Films 2012
Read More: "The Avengers": Critics weigh in
Read More: "The Avengers" earns $178.4 million overseas

The film opened abroad first, a fairly different approach for a blockbuster, and earned $178.4 million in a total of 39 countries.

"The fact that it has done so well overseas has everyone already speculating over just how successful it's going to be," Peter Adee, who has worked in marketing and distribution at Relativity Media, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Universal, told The Los Angeles Times. "The question 'Is it going to be successful?' is gone from the conversation before it even debuts in the U.S."

Now, the question that remains is how successful? "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" still remains on top with its $160.2 million debut.

"The Hunger Games" which opened over a month ago raking in $155 million, ranks as the third highest domestic opening weekend in history behind 2008's Batman film "The Dark Knight" and "Harry Potter."