Marvel’s ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ tops North American box office for third weekend straight

Avengers: Infinity War dominated the North American box office for a third straight weekend, raking in $62.1 million as it easily fended off competition, industry figures showed on Monday.

The Disney blockbuster, featuring a string of Marvel superheroes out to save the universe from powerful purple alien Thanos (Josh Brolin), has a cumulative three-week take of $548.1 million, according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

Returning to their Marvel roles in the film are Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Chris Hemsworth as Thor.

Running a distant second with what normally would be a respectable $17.9 million was Life of the Party, a Melissa McCarthy comedy in its first weekend out.

McCarthy – who co-wrote the script with her husband, the movie’s director Ben Falcone – stars as a newly divorced mother who returns to college, where her daughter is in her senior year.

Breaking In, a new thriller starring Gabrielle Union, was third at $17.6 million.

Review website Rotten Tomatoes dismissed the film as a “rote, disposable action thriller” but praised Union’s performance as a mother fighting to save her children from criminal hostage-takers.

Rom-com Overboard slipped from second to fourth place with a box-office take of $9.9 million in its second weekend in theaters. The Lionsgate remake, starring Anna Faris and Eugenio Derbez, is about a struggling single mother who persuades a rich playboy with amnesia that they are married.