Box office report: 'Avengers' smashes 2nd weekend record with $103.2M, passes $1 billion worldwide

From ew [excerpt], Of course Tony Stark wasn’t satisfied with just one weekend of headlines!

After its record-demolishing $207.4 million debut last weekend, The Avengers easily stayed atop the box office in its second frame, soaring to $103.2 million (a drop of only 50 percent) over the Friday-to-Sunday period. That figure crushes the second weekend box office record, which was formerly held by Avatar with its $75.6 million sophomore frame.

Incredibly, The Avengers‘ 50 percent drop is the smallest second weekend decline of any film that achieved one of the Top 10 opening weekends of all time. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 fell by 72 percent after its $169.1 million debut. The Dark Knight dipped 53 percent after its $158.4 million start. The Hunger Games and Spider-Man 3 both sank by 62 percent after their debuts of $152.5 million and $151.1 million, respectively. Those sorts of drops are just expected when dealing with gargantuan openings like these, but Avengers started much higher and fell by much less — a clear indicator of positive audience reception.

The superhero ensemble , which has grossed $373.2 million total, also broke a slew of other records this weekend as well. Not only did The Avengers score the best second Friday ($29.1 million), Saturday ($43.1 million) and Sunday ($30.9 million) in box office history, but it became the fastest film to ever pass $300 million on Saturday, its ninth day of release (The Dark Knight accomplished this in ten days). And today, on its tenth day in domestic theaters, Avengers became the fastest film to ever pass $350 million, zooming by The Dark Knight‘s record of 14 days.

The only 2012 release that has earned more money than The Avengers is The Hunger Games, which has grossed $386.9 million after eight weekends in theaters. By this time next week, though, Avengers will have blown right by Katniss and company as it continues its ascent to at least $500 million, a milestone that is an absolute lock at this point. With remarkable word-of-mouth (it earned an “A+” CinemaScore grade), Avengers should continue to see modest drops in the weeks to come, and I won’t be one bit surprised if it marches right past the $600 million mark.

Internationally, the film continue to impress, and after 19 days, it has grossed $628.9 million. That’s far more than the international totals of its predecessors: Captain America ($192 million), Iron Man ($266.7 million), Thor ($268.3 million) and Iron Man 2 ($311.5 million). Disney estimates that today The Avengers will pass the $1 billion mark.