Marvel's 'The Avengers' $17.1M Breaking Records Overseas

BREAKING' THURSDAY AM, 3RD UPDATE: More countries are reporting grosses. The superhero certain blockbuster doesn't come out in the U.S. until May 4th. But my sources say early box office estimates are coming out today from 10 of the 42 territories where Marvel's The Avengers from Disney was released today for the start of its international run. And the hotly anticipated actioner is already shattering box office records overseas. It earned in U.S. dollar estimates $17.1M from 10 countries: including $7.2M in Australia, $3.0 in France, $1.3M in the Philippines, $1.2M in Taiwan, and $800K in New Zealand. Two of the nations, Australia and New Zealand, having  were holidays: ANZAC Day, so that helped boost box office. Australia's opening day is the second-highest opening of all time there behind only the final Harry Potter (A$7M). It is also the highest Marvel opening day ever, 214% ahead of Iron Man 2 (A$1.8M Thursday opening) and 136% ahead of The Dark Knight (A$2.5M Thursday opening), and the highest Disney opening day ever for a Disney film. The pic playing in Taiwan is the biggest industry Wednesday opening ever, the biggest opening day of 2012 (173% above Battleship) and the second-biggest opening day for any Marvel film (after only Spider-Man 3). In New Zealand, pic scored highest grossing opening day ever, beating Harrry Potter finale (NZ$975L). The pic isnt even pen yet in China, Russia, or japan.  The Avengers is the first Marvel film to be marketed and distributed by Disney, so this is great news for the studio.

Related: 'Avengers' Tracking Like Superhero: $125+M Opening Weekend With 4-Quadrant Appeal

The pic has been tracking incredibly high because so many well-known characters are coming together for the first time in this PG-13 film directed by Joss Whedon in Digital 3D, RealD & IMAX 3D. So the movie's North American opening on May 4th timed to the official summer season start will be an event. As a result, not only will this type of action film normally skew young and older male, but the tracking is looking strong as a three- and possibly four-quadrant movie, too. Right now Disney and theatre owners are adding screens every day for the U.S./Canada release whose online pre-sales of tickets were selling out weeks in advance. Midnight show business is expected to be phenomenal. Exactly how much the studio can gross for the first weekend depends on how many screenings each theater can pack into 72 hours by finding enough staff willing to work the extra hours and keep the pic running continuously.

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.