‘Captain Marvel’ defies trolls in its box office-record path

“Captain Marvel” has responded to doubters, trolls and a pernicious Hollywood myth in the strongest way possible – with a monster first weekend.

The Disney-Marvel movie, starring Brie Larson as the title hero, had a top-20 all-time opening before adjusting for inflation, according to studio estimates Sunday.

By grossing $153 million in its domestic debut, “Captain Marvel” topped another female-led action franchise, 2012’s “The Hunger Games” ($152.5 million) and slid in behind another: 2016’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” ($155 million).

Globally, “Captain Marvel” grossed a combined $455 million – the sixth-best opening ever before adjusting for inflation. The newest Marvel movie also continued the studio’s streak: Every one of its 21 films has opened at No. 1.

The record-breaking debut debunked the myth that a solo female superhero couldn’t reliably open a film – a foundation of success laid by “Wonder Woman” and now solidified by “Captain Marvel.”

Wonder Woman faced some skepticism before the 2017′s film’s massive box office: Was she worthy of carrying of her own movie? A half-year earlier, she had been dropped as an honorary U.N. ambassador for gender equality. And when the movie opened, an all-women screening at an Alamo Drafthouse in Texas stirred controversy.

Two years later, “Captain Marvel” faced heated online attempts to troll the film, with its Rotten Tomatoes audience score hitting just 27 percent before the website changed its rules last month to prevent review comments before a movie’s release.

Some fans were responding to the movie’s “liberal politics and diverse casting,” as well as “Larson’s call for more women and people of color in film,” according to The Washington Post’s Steven Zeitchik.