Battleship Sunk by The Avengers

It’s three weeks of box office dominance and counting for The Avengers, which easily kept new release Battleship from the number one spot and became Disney’s highest-grossing film ever in the process. The superhero extravaganza’s $55 million weekend gross brings its domestic total so far $457 million; add in international receipts and its worldwide haul is now $1.18 billion, the fourth-highest ever.

Battleship, meanwhile, underperformed at the box office, earning only $25.3 million. Still, considering the success it’s had since it opened in most international markets last month—its total worldwide gross so far is $226 million—Universal Pictures execs probably aren’t crying into their Cheerios. Coming in third was new release The Dictator, which pulled in $17.4 million over the weekend; last week’s runner-up Dark Shadows (weekend gross $12.7 million, total gross $50.9 million) slipped to number four. Rounding out the top five was What to Expect When You’re Expecting, which earned an underwhelming $10.5 million in its first weekend of release.

Out in limited release were Crooked Arrows ($280,390), Hysteria ($40,829 in just five theaters, for an impressive per-screen gross of $8,166), Polisse ($16,700), Elena ($9,393) and Virginia ($6,311).

Agents J, K and the rest will try their hand at taking down The Avengers next weekend when Men in Black III hits theaters in wide release, as does nuclear horror film Chernobyl Diaries. Limited releases include Cowgirls n’ Angels, The Intouchables, Mighty Fine, Oslo, August 31st and Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom.