Back in the 40’s there were “monster rally” movies, where all the classic Universal monsters were brought together in one film.
First Frankenstein met the Wolfman, but then they brought aboard Dracula for House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, and finally Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
While I’m not sure if you can call The Avengers a “superhero rally” film, even if you’re not familiar with the Marvel series, it’s clear there are many great heroes all working together in one film.
Since many of the Avengers characters like Iron Man and Thor did well in their own solo film, logic would dictate they’d do big biz all together at the box office, right?
Still, as strong as the buzz for The Avengers is building, we at TG were very surprised to learn that “tracking” for the film may be bigger than the anticipation for The Dark Knight, as well as the tracking for The Hunger Games pre-release.
The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Joss Whedon’s Avengers, which hits theaters May 4, “could score one of the biggest domestic openings of all time for a superhero pic, if not one of the biggest period.” How big? $150 million or more.
It’s still hard to imagine The Avengers getting bigger tracking than The Dark Knight, but that’s what Marvel and Disney, who are co-releasing the film, are saying.
As the Reporter notes, “unaided awareness” of the Avengers is 13%, where it’s 10% for Dark Knight, and 11% for Hunger Games. The Avengers received a 23% first choice ranking, which the Hunger Games also managed to secure. (The Dark Knight has a 19% first choice ranking).
The “total awareness” for The Avengers is 85%, where it’s 76% for The Dark Knight, and (was) 54% for Hunger Games. The Reporter also mentions that Avengers is getting more interest from females than Dark Knight.
This is where Hollywood always tries to hedge its bets, by seeing if a movie skews to male, female, younger, and adult viewers, and if it can score in the “four quadrants,” it means big bucks all around. The Marvel movie marathons that will play before The Avengers opens May 4 have already sold out a month in advance, which is definitely good news as well. All early signs indicate that The Avengers will indeed have a big opening weekend.
