CAPTAIN AMERICA DOES WHAT VOLDEMORT DIDN’T

Captain America took down Harry Potter over the weekend, sending box-office gurus back to forecasting school. Although most had expected a tight race, with each film taking in around $60 million, the race in reality turned out to be not close at all. Captain America wound up with a Marvel-ous $65.8 million, while Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 dropped 72 percent to $48.1 million in its second weekend, according to studio estimates. It was the biggest second-week drop-off percentage-wise for any movie playing in more than 1,000 theaters since the remake of Friday the 13th dropped 80.4 percent in 2009. (But then, horror films have a notorious reputation for dropping precipitously in their second week.) In terms of actual dollars, no film in history has dropped so steeply as Deathly Hallows, but then no film in history had as far to drop, given its record-breaking debut. Also opening this weekend, Sony/Screen Gems’s Friends With Benefits earned $18.5 million — a figure that was below industry expectations.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo:
1. Captain America: The First Avenger, $65.8 million; 2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, $48 million; 3. Friends With Benefits, $18.5 million; 4. Transformers: Dark of the Moon, $12 million; 5. Horrible Bosses, $11.7 million; 6. Zookeeper, $8.7 million; 7. Cars 2, $5.7 million; 8. Winnie the Pooh, $5.1 million; 9. Bad Teacher, $2.6 million; 10. Midnight in Paris, $1.9 million.

UPDATE:
Final Figures for the Top Five Films:

1. Captain America: The First Avenger, $65,058,524
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, $47,422,212
3. Friends with Benefits, $18,622,150
4. Transformers: Dark of the Moon, $12,051,735
5. Horrible Bosses, $11,884,319