'Captain Marvel' Soars Past Expectations (And Trolls) With A Year-Best $153 Million Opening

Captain Marvel shattered expectations, and the hopes of hundreds of angry trolls, this past weekend. The Marvel Studios origin movie raked in a whopping $153 million at the domestic box office, making it the best-performing opening weekend of the year. The Captain Marvel box office received an even bigger push internationally, soaring past $455 million at the global box office to become the sixth-highest worldwide debut ever.Captain Marvel's box office performance went higher, further, faster than even its sky-high industry tracking estimates. The Marvel Studios film took in $153 million domestically on its opening weekend, blowing past initial estimates that Captain Marvel would open to $135 million. According to Box Office Mojo, this makes Captain Marvel the third-highest March opening of all time, behind Batman v Superman ($166 million) and Beauty and the Beast ($174 million).

Forbes reports that Captain Marvel is also the second-biggest solo superhero effort since Black Panther raked in $202 million in 2018. And if we're talking about where its box office ranks in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain Marvel scored the MCU's seventh-biggest opening behind Iron Man 3 ($174 million), Captain America: Civil War ($179 million), Avengers: Age of Ultron ($191 million), Black Panther ($202 million), The Avengers ($207 million), and Avengers: Infinity War ($258 million). So much for the trolls.

Internationally, Captain Marvel even managed to outperform Black Panther's $371 million global launch (which admittedly didn't open in China right away), raking in $455 million to become sixth-biggest global debut of all time.

Box Office Mojo estimates that at this rate, Captain Marvel could top Iron Man 3's $409 million domestic run and go on to become the fifth-largest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And considering the movie's incredible performance compared to the standard solo debut like Ant-Man or Doctor Strange, it's clear that audiences are eager for more female-led stories. Captain Marvel holds the distinction of being Marvel Studios' first female-led solo superhero movie, but with its strong debut this past weekend, it'll probably soon be joined by plenty more.

We'll have to keep a watch to see if Captain Marvel will keep cruising at the box office once Shazam! enters the competition in April.

Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck direct Captain Marvel, which stars Brie Larson as the title character. Captain Marvel is in theaters now.

Captain Marvel is an extraterrestrial Kree warrior who finds herself caught in the middle of an intergalactic battle between her people and the Skrulls. Living on Earth in 1995, she keeps having recurring memories of another life as U.S. Air Force pilot Carol Danvers. With help from Nick Fury, Captain Marvel tries to uncover the secrets of her past while harnessing her special superpowers to end the war with the evil Skrulls.