"The Avengers" ups box office power with $207.4M opening
(CBS/AP) LOS ANGELES - The record-breaking box office take for the opening weekend of "The Avengers" has grown even higher.
Final figures from distributor Disney on Monday put the film's debut at $207.4 million, $7.1 million higher than the studio had estimated a day earlier.
With a superstar cast, great reviews and glowing word of mouth from fans, "The Avengers" bounded past the previous record of $169.2 million set by last year's "Harry Potter" finale, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2."
Directed by Joss Whedon, who has been reading "The Avengers" comics since he was a boy, the film features Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Chris Evans as Captain America and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye.
The sum of all of those superheroes proved more than the parts. "The Avengers" already has surpassed the worldwide box-office totals for "Iron Man," "Iron Man 2," "Thor" and "Captain America" in their entire runs.
