Avengers smashes all-time record

YOUR WEAKEND BLOCKBUSTER BOX OFFICE: Disney made a dramatic recovery from the recent John Carter disaster, as The Avengers, the studio’s first release in its partnership with Marvel, obliterated the record for opening weekend grosses with $200.3 million. The previous champ was last year’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 2, with $169.2 million. The North American box office total added to an already unfolding global success story, the L.A. Times points out. Playing in 52 international markets, the movie collected $151.5 million this weekend, raising its tally abroad to $441.5 million. That means that after just two weeks in release, The Avengers has already sold $641.8 million worth of tickets, jumping past The Hunger Games (which is still doing well enough for third place on the weekend behind ensemble comedy Think Like a Man) on the ranking of top-grossing 2012 releases worldwide. It’ll be interesting to see how the record-breaking weekend impacted the debut of Marvel Music/Hollywood’s Avengers Assemble soundtrack, which was trending toward 25-28k prior to the opening of the movie. The album is #12 on the iTunes chart this morning. (5/7a)