Box Office Report: Captain America; The First Avenger

Captain America: The First Avenger is the fourth and final summer superhero movie of 2011. Many critics predicted that a combination of audience superhero fatigue and the broad appeal of Harry Potter would spell financial doom for the Joe Johnston flick but the critics have been wrong before. Cap took down the boy wizard but next up is the Jon Favreau flick, Cowboys & Aliens. Can the Sentinel of Liberty strike box office gold two weeks in a row?

Captain America [$65.1M] had the second highest opening-weekend box office gross of this summer's superhero movies behind Thor [$65.7M]. However, more people saw Captain America, as only 38% of the movies revenue came from higher-priced 3D movie tickets as opposed to the 60% that made up Thor's revenue. Regardless, both are Marvel films distributed by Paramount so the studios are all smiles. Most promising is the fact that Captain America had a $17,700 per venue average over 3,715 venues and will likely see its theater count increased thanks to early success. With a budget of $140 million, which is relatively low for summer tentpoles these days, and international box office numbers yet to be accumulated, it's well positioned to turn a significant profit. Looks like Joe Johnston is in a very good position to get that Winter Soldier spinoff.

Exit polls showed that the movie audience was 64% male and that 58% were over the age of 25.

Click here to read past predictions from CBMers about Cap's opening weekend gross. Toot your own horn if you nailed it and if you were way off, be ready to guess again when I cover Cowboys & Aliens.

Click here to read an excellent review from PollMaster.

Winner:Captain America

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