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Shalimar Sahota: Less than a year ago when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 broke the opening weekend record, we were asked if there were any films on the horizon which stood a chance of beating it. The Avengers was discussed as opening huge, but back then only Edwin really considered it as a strong possibility. I now bow before his greatness. I thought the film would open to something close to The Dark Knight's opening, somewhere between $145 - $155 million. So seeing it reach the $200 million mark is just plain unbelievable!

Reagen Sulewski: What's striking to me is that I was among the bolder predictions out there, and I still missed it by $30 million. That's an astounding figure, even when you take into account all the expensive 3D tickets. I mean, we're talking about three $55 million days in a row, and no other film has even gotten close to that.

It's interesting that the record seems to grow in great spurts - the only "just" in recent years was Dark Knight beating out Spidey 3 - so there has to be something foundational in the fact that Avengers did this. I think there's something to be said about the fact that this was marketed as a bright and fun blockbuster - a lot of the previous record breakers have been sort of grim affairs. This was grand scale and a promise of fun, instead of making you feel like you wanted to slit your wrists after. That, I think, made a big difference.

Daron Aldridge: First, take the victory, Reagen. What's $30 million here or there, right? I guess I too will have to join your chorus. The number that kept popping into my head was $144 million...not sure why that number other than it must've carried over from working on multiplication tables with my son. I just simply thought that the audience that wanted this movie had already shown up for the other films. Iron Man and Iron Man 2's near identical domestic gross of $318 million and $312 million were my primary reasons to think that way. I was waaaaayy wrong. Of course that thinking was pre-Friday's crazy numbers.

Considering that aside from Iron Man, none of the other three primary characters had a opening weekend of more than $65 million, I am stunned at $200 million. Even combining Captain America's $65 million, Thor's $65 million and The Incredible Hulk's $55 million outright, you end up with $185 million and over $20 million short of where it did end up. Unreal.

As a side note: It's strange to think about that exactly ten years ago, another anticipated Marvel property, Spider-Man, opened and claimed the top record with a now quaint $114 million. And now there are 12 titles between the first Tobey Maguire/Peter Parker adventure and the top spot (seven of which were released between 2010 and 2012). What a difference a decade makes.

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