'The Avengers' Loses Top Spot, But Heads For The Record Books

'The Avengers' might have been knocked from the top of the US Box Office Charts finally, being pipped by the third instalment of the 'Men In Black' series, but it nevertheless looks set to take its place in the history books after another impressive showing and a move towards the very upper echelons of the all-time grossing movies.

USA Today reports that 'The Avengers' took another tidy $47 million in cinemas over the weekend to place second behind 'Men In Black 3,' putting its overall US gross at $523.6 million. There are now only three films ahead of it: 'The Dark Knight' (which took $533.3 million,) 'Titanic' ($658.5 million) and 'Avatar' ($760.5 million.) Though analysts aren't expecting it to top the first two, 'The Dark Knight' is expected to be surpassed this week, whilst it's also worth noting that 'The Avengers' is the quickest film to have topped $500 million, reaching the target in just 23 days - some nine days faster than the previous record set by 'Avatar.'

Abroad the film's done incredibly well too, meaning that globally it's taken a whopping $1.31 billion. It's expected to overtake 'Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, Part 2' this week ($1.32 billion) and will then once again find itself in third place behind the two James Cameron-directed films 'Titanic' ($2.2 billion) and 'Avatar' ($2.8 billion.)