This weekend exactly 10 years ago, an adaptation of a Marvel comic became the very first movie to make $100 million is a single weekend. That film was Spider-man and now, a decade on, another Marvel property has become the first movie to power past $200 million in only three days in the US, smashing numerous records in the process.

The film took $200.3 million on its US release, which is by far the biggest opening ever, ahead of last year’s Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2′s $169 million. It became the fastest film to $100 million, $150 million and $200 million, took the biggest Saturday ($69.7 million) and Sunday ($50.1 milion) gross ever and had the highest per-theatre average ever for a nationwide release of $46,057.

Perhaps just as impressively its already beaten the lifetime US take of Thor, Captain America and the Incredible Hulk, and will almost certainly pass both Iron Man films by next weekend. It’s a massive vindication of Marvel’s plan to make a series of interconnected movies and will ensure we see many more movies featuring the characters in the future.

The only bad news what that The Avengers dominance meant all the other movies in the top 10 took a big hit, but cinema owners are unlikely to be complaining, and will hope this is only the beginning of a huge summer. Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of May 4th-6th 2012.

After surprising many with its strong $30 million plus opening last week, Think Like A Man has continued its successful run at the US box office topping the chart for a second week with $18 million. It beat out quite a few new movies, none of which found a particularly big audience.

The Pirates! Band Of Misfits did best of the new entries, placing second with $11.4 million, which was about in line with expectations. And yes, it is the same film as The Pirates In An Adventure With Scientists, but got a bit of a title change as US marketing people thought the word ‘scientists’ would turn kids off.

The Five-Year Engagement landed with a bit of a thud, underperforming with only $11.1 million. Going in to the weekend, some analysts thought the Jason Segel and Emily Blunt rom-com had a chance of topping the chart, but it appear audiences weren’t interested, perhaps because there are already several other movies hoovering up the female audience at the moment.

It did however beat out the Jason Statham film Safe, which placed sixth on the chart with $7.7 million, as well as The Raven, which came seventh on the chart with $7.2 million.

Next weekend it’ll be all change as The Avengers will hit the US this week, with many expecting a $150 million plus opening weekend. The movie is already making waves outside the US, making a huge $178 million even though it only opened in around 75% of territories. In the UK, the film pulled in a rather stellar $15 million, one of the best openings ever and the best for a superhero movie.

Hollywood has never quite gotten to grips with the African American audience, so that every time a film with a largely black cast does well, it’s treated as a massive surprise. That’s certainly the case with Think Like A Man, which was barely on most people’s radar but scored a huge $33 million opening to top the box office chart.

The film knocked the movie many had expected to top the chart, The Lucky One, into second spot with $22 million. It’s certainly not a bad start for a romantic drama and marks a rare weekend when two female-focussed movies have opened strong against one another.

Disneynature’s Chimpanzee opened in fourth spot with $10.3 million, which is the biggest opening ever for a nature documentary. Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of April 20th-22nd.

Although it held the top spot more due to a lack of new breakout hits than anything else, The Hunger Games is now the first film since Avatar to stay at number 1 on the US box office chart for four weeks running. It added another $21.5 million to take its total to an impressive $337 million.

That meant the weekend’s main new releases had to settle for second and third spot, with The Three Stooges doing the best, taking $17.1 million. It’s reported that the audiences largely consisted of under-25s, the group who know least about the real Stooges, but who do like the Farrelly Brothers’ brand of comedy.

Cabin In The Woods took third spot with an okay but not particularly great $14.8 million. Despite great reviews, it appears the general audience didn’t take to it, with reports that many disliked it due to the fact it wasn’t the generic splatter horror movie they thought they were getting (and films do tend to get pilloried in the word of mouth stakes if they aren’t exactly what they appear to be from the marketing).

The only other new entry in the top 10 was Lockout, which took a rather disappointing $6.2 million to finish in 9th place. It’s off from most other recent Luc Besson produced action, and suggests audiences didn’t take to its ‘Escape From New York but in space’ premise.

Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of April 13th-15th.

The first pics from both the Farrelly brothers’ The Three Stooges and Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie had popped up online. You can see the Stooges one above, via USA Today, which is the first image we’ve had of Chris Diamantopoulos as Moe, Sean Hayes as Larry, and Will Sasso as Curly that we’ve had where they aren’t in silhouette. The guys certainly look the part, and we’ll be able to see if they can pull off the Stooge magic next April.

Below you can see the first shots and a behind-the-scene image from Frankenweenie, Tim Burton’s feature length stop-motion version of his 1984 short. It’s been in the works for year, and as stop-motion takes so long still won’t be in cinemas until October 2012, but you can see the first official pics here (via EW).

General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser

The Farrelly Brothers had a surprising amount of difficulty getting The Three Stooges off the ground, with both financing and cast issues resulting in the initially explosive trio of Sean Penn, Jim Carrey and Benicio Del Toro ending up as the less starry Chris Diamantopoulos (Moe), Sean Hayes (Larry), and Will Sasso (Curly).

They’re a talented bunch, but as they’re not a-list, it’s probably why Fox has gone for the silhouette approach with this first poster – after all, the Stooges, even in black, are more famous than the people playing them. There undoubtedly will be a lot more for us to see before the movie opens next April.

General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser