Box Office Shocker: 'avengers' Scores $80.5 Million, Second Biggest Friday Opening Of All Time

Robert Downey Jr. has been musing about stepping away from Iron Man and letting other actors take a crack at the character, but if Joss Whedon has any say in the matter, he would rather have Downey play Iron Man forever. "I want him [Downey Jr.] to play it forever," Whedon told Desde Hollywood (via Comingsoon).

Hollywood blockbusters appeared poised last year to take over China’s box office, but something unexpected happened on the way to the bank: demand tapered off sharply.

The weekend was very kind to last week’s one and only new release, Oblivion. Otherwise, the charts have remained more or less static since last weekend. Oblivion did quite well in the box office, making over $38.1 million; while this is at the bottom end of its predicted range for its opening weekend gross, it’s still a respectable sum, and the film can probably expect similarly impressive numbers in later weeks. read more

Both of last week’s new releases did very well in the box office this weekend—even despite the arguably vast disparity in quality between the two releases. Making the top of the charts is 42, which outdid its modest expectations (even for a heartwarming based-on-a-true-story yarn), earning revenues in the ballpark (ha) of $27.2 million on its opening weekend. read more

Not only did this last week introduce abnormally well-received new releases, but these releases continued the streak with admirable box office numbers, as well. read more