Avengers sequel sets box office high

NEW YORK — A whole lot of superheroes added up to a whole lot of ticket sales. The superhero smorgasbord Avengers: Infinity Wars opened with predictable shock-and-awe, earning $250 million in box office over the weekend and edging past Star Wars: The Force Awakens to set the highest opening weekend of all-time.

Infinity War, which brings together some two dozen superheroes in the 10-year culmination of Marvel Studio’s “cinematic universe,” also set a new global opening record with $630 million even though it’s yet to open in China, the world’s second-largest movie market. It opens there May 11.

According to the Walt Disney Co.’s estimates Sunday, Infinity War overwhelmed the previous global best (The Fate of the Furious with $541.9 million) but narrowly topped The Force Awakens in North America. The Star Wars reboot debuted with $248 million in 2015, which would translate to about $260 million accounting for inflation.

But both intergalactic behemoths belong to Disney, which now owns nine of the top 10 opening weekends ever – six belonging to Marvel releases. That includes Black Panther, which has grossed $1.3 billion since opening in February and still managed to rank fifth at this weekend’s box office, thanks partially to Marvel fans self-programming a doublefeature.

The track record for Marvel, along with the hyper, extravagant effort put into the long-planned Infinity War, made the recordsetting weekend something of a fait accompli.

After 10 years, 18 prior films and some $15 billion in box office, the weekend was an assured and long-awaited coronation for Kevin Feige’s Marvel, the most dominant force in a Hollywood with precious few sure things.

No new wide releases dared to compete with Infinity War, which played at 4,474 theatres in North America.