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But to come out ahead, Sony's 3D tentpole will need plenty of kids and families to turn out over the long Memorial Day weekend; horror pic "Chernobyl Diaries" opens in the No. 4 spot with $3.5 milllion, Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom" soars at the specialty box office.read more

Wow. It certainly didn’t look that way after Thursday’s disappointing midnight screenings, but here we are. “The Avengers” has broken the all-time opening weekend box office record with a phenomenal $200.3M. That’s at least $30M more than the most optimistic projections from box office analysts.

The record-smashing tentpole now has a shot at debuting to $170 million, the biggest opening of all time in North America; the pic has earned $334.3 million internationally for a whopping global total of $414.8 million.

The feast is on: "The Hunger Games" has taken in $68.25 million domestically in its first day, a record for a non-sequel. The Friday total for Lionsgate's "The Hunger Games" was the fifth-best opening day ever and puts the movie on track for the best debut weekend ever in March. That record is held by "Alice in Wonderland" with $116.1 million.

New Line and Warner Bros.' s New Year's Eve is on course to gross $6 million to $7 million in its first day of play at the domestic box office, putting it at No. 1. Director Garry Marshall's $56 million star-studded ensemble pic is expected to open in the $20 million range for the weekend, in line with pre-release tracking. While that's far less than the $72 million bow of Marshall's Valentine's Day over the four-day Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend in 2010, Warner Bros. expects the film to have an especially strong multiple and play through New Year's Day since it's the only holiday romantic comedy.

The weekend after Thanksgiving is one of the slowest of the year, and 2011 is no different. With no new wide releases, Summit Entertainment's The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 continued to top the domestic box office, grossing $5.5 million on Friday for a cume of $235.9 million. The pic is on track for a $16.8 million weekend.

In a notable victory for Disney, The Muppets continues to rule over other family films at the Thanksgiving box office, grossing $12.3 million on Friday for a three-day cume of $24.8 million. The pic, which cost a modest $45 million to produce, is now projected to post a Wednesday-Sunday debut of at least $40 million, putting it behind only The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn--Part 1, which grossed $16.9 million on Friday for a cume of roughly $195 million (the pic will jump the $200 million mark sometime on Saturday).

WEDNESDAY 4 PM: My sources are giving me these early estimates for today’s movie openings and for the 5-day Thanksgiving holiday. Already it’s looking like some of the new family fare won’t speed out of the theatrical gate, leaving a clear path for Summit Entertainment’s holdover Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 1 to win the weekend derby.

The Halloween threequel is pacing well ahead of the previous two pics; Paul W.S. Anderson's "The Three Musketeers" and the Rowan Atkinson action-comedy "Johnny English Reborn" don't find much love in the U.S. Far exceeding expectations, Paranormal Activity 3 grossed a massive $26.2 million on Friday, putting it on course to earn as much as $50 million for the weekend and score the best opening in nearly four months at the domestic box office on the strength of both younger and older moviegoers.

Paramount’s remake tops Friday with $5.6 million; horror prequel “The Thing” off to so-so start with $3.2 mil, while the Steve Martin-Jack Black-Owen Wilson comedy “The Big Year” only grosses $1.2 mil.