Avengers: Age Of Ultron has second-highest opening weekend and premiere of all time

The film’s debut in U.S. theaters kicked off in a big way last week, generating more than $84.4 million in ticket sales and putting Avengers: Age of Ultron in the record books with the second-highest single-day gross of all time. While that number did include some Thursday evening screenings (which are considered “preview” screenings of the film), it put the film just ahead of its 2012 predecessor ($80.8 million) on the all-time single-day rankings, and just behind 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($90 million).

Avengers: Age of Ultron also pulled off a second-place finish in the race to the top of the all-time opening weekend rankings in the U.S. The film’s $187.7 million in domestic ticket sales put it in the #2 spot behind The Avengers, which grossed $207.4 million over the course of its opening weekend.

The tally for Age of Ultron also served up more evidence of Marvel Studios’ box-office dominance, as the studio is now responsible for the three films with the highest-grossing opening weekends of all time in the U.S. (After The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2013’s Iron Man 3 occupies the #3 spot in the all-time opening weekend records for domestic releases.)

As far as the bigger picture goes, Avengers: Age of Ultron already ranks #88 on the list of the highest-grossing films of all time worldwide, with $626.7 million in overall ticket sales. It still has a long way to go to reach the $1.4 billion that Furious 7 has earned so far in its run (currently ranked #4 in all-time worldwide box-office grosses), but given how quickly the film is raking in money, it won’t be a surprise if Age of Ultron joins The Avengers (currently ranked #3 all-time worlwide) in the upper reaches of Hollywood’s elite box-office blockbusters.

Of particular note is the film’s performance in IMAX theaters, which contributed to the biggest weekend ever for IMAX screenings. With both Furious 7 and Age of Ultron showing simultaneously in IMAX theaters worldwide, IMAX recorded its first ever $30 million weekend thanks to $25.2 million from Age of Ultron screenings and an additional $5 million from Furious 7. That tally for Avengers: Age of Ultron also put the film at the top of the opening-weekend charts for IMAX screenings, eclipsing the $23.8 million earned by The Dark Knight Rises in IMAX theaters over the course of its 2012 opening weekend.