While there are some haters out there who think a superhero mega movie isn’t worth the time spent on popcorn, the majority of the country, and now, the world, seem to disagree. Disney and Marvel’s The Avengers opened up in specific worldwide screens this weekend, a week ahead of the domestic release on May 4th, and have already superseded expectations in their market, breaking records in Australia by having the second biggest opening weekend of all time behind the final Harry Potter film.

THR breaks down the rest.

The Marvel Studios and Disney tentpole grossed $6 million, compared to $7 million for Deathly Hallows Part 2. And Avengers opened 214 percent ahead of Iron Man 2 ($1.8 million).

Avengers, which is beginning its foreign rollout a week ahead of its domestic launch on May 4, also did record business in Taiwan, scoring the best Wednesday opening gross of all time in earning $1.2 million.

The tentpole is setting down in a total of 42 foreign markets this weekend. Avengers is expected to be a box office monster, both domestically and overseas. In North America, it could debut north of $150 million, based on the sizable strength of pre-release tracking.

Not too shabby for a film about a group of dysfunctional teammates who take down an alien race, right? Catch Avengers in theaters next Friday.

Much like myself, every fanboy and fangirl in the world is counting the days to May 4th when they have their childhood dreams realized on film as Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and Hulk join together in one amazing film by the man that made X-Men and a cheerleader who fights vampires cool, Joss Whedon.

Leading up to that, in typical Disney fashion, the genius marketing reps over there have managed to make every day leading up to the 4th like Christmas morning with tons of new clips and treats. First, they treated a special group of superfans to a screening across the country last weekend, and now they’re treating us all to an onslaught of clips.

Some of you have already seen the popular Black Widow clip from the film, but this new one, featuring an all-out brawl between Thor and Iron Man is probably the best one we’ve seen yet.

Take a look after the jump, and catch Avengers in theaters starting Midnight, May 4th.

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While most of the fanboy nation is already waiting with baited breath for May 4th to come and all of us to see Marvel’s super film The Avengers, director Joss Whedon is already thinking about where he wants to go with the proposed sequel to the film.

It turns out that while this Avengers film is going to have plenty of big “splash page” style action, Whedon told Digital Spy he would like the next film to play a bit smaller, and more personal for each character.

“By being the next thing that should happen to these characters, and not just a rehash of what seemed to work the first time. By having a theme that is completely fresh and organic to itself.”

Whedon joked that a sequel could take heed from crime classic The Godfather II ”by having flashbacks to young Michael Andolini escaping Sicily to come to New York, where he will be called Corleone”.

“Sequels are always better when that happens,” he quipped.

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Just when you thought things couldn’t get much better than the awesome trailer fans got during this year’s SuperBowl for The Avengers, things just got a little bit better.

The newest trailer just hit the intertubes, and boy is it sexy. You’ve got everything you wanted before the May release: more Hawkeye, Hulk, Stark, and even a better glimpse at the threat that could be Kree, Skrull, or whoever. This may also be the first time we’re getting to see more of Robert Downey Jr. being the lovable jerk that he was in the first two Iron Man flicks.

The trailer just hit the interwebs now, so be sure to check out the full thing after the jump, alongside the brand new payoff poster with the whole gang looking epic and awesome in the streets of NYC.

So what are you waiting for? Behold the wonder after the jump, and catch Avengers in theaters on May 4th.

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One aspect of the upcoming Avengers film that people sort of take for granted is that three of it’s main cast were the leading men in four previous movies. We have been used to seeing these heroes as traditional, singular forces of good in films bearing their names in the title. How will it work cinematically when these characters have to share screen time with other prominent characters?

Well this is something that the filmmakers are also thinking about, and Joss Whedon recently talked to EW about what hero’s perspective the movie will follow.

“So much of [The Avengers] story takes place from Steve Rogers’ perspective, since he’s the guy who just woke up and sees this weird-ass world,” Whedon says. “Everyone else has been living in it. He’s the guy that feels that sense of loss.”

This makes a lot of sense, and is a welcome direction for the film to take. The recent (excellent) Avengers cartoon series focused on Iron Man putting the team together, and there was concern that The Avengers would just be Iron Man 3 based on the popularity of Robert Downey Jr.’s take on the character. Thankfully, Whedon choose to go with a more traditional angle on an Avengers origin story, which hopefully will make for a better film this summer.

Everyone is awaiting the upcoming May 4th release of Marvel’s The Avengers. With Joss Whedon at the helm and years of building a fan base through the individual movies, hype about the upcoming culmination is pretty strong.

This trailer comes in time to grab the attention of action flick enthusiasts looking forward to a summer of great cinematic experiences, Amazing Spider-man andThe Dark Night Rises also being unleashed this summer.

The culmination of the incredible heroes working together to save the planet from the forces of evil is just as exciting in German as I’m sure the English language trailer release will be very soon. Though the German trailer is not as cohesive as I expect the English one will be, a few blips of the action scenes are shown as well as one or three great shots of Scarlett Johansson to get everyone’s interest piqued.

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Remember that movie The Cabin in the Woods we first told you about over two years ago? What ever happend to that one?

It had a lot going for it, coming from Cloverfield writer and director Drew Goddard and co-written by the man himself Joss Whedon. It also stars Chris Hemsworth, who went on to be in Marvel’s Thor and the upcoming The Avengers.

Sadly, the movie fell victim to MGM’s money troubles and ended up being put on the shelf until the company emerged from its money troubles or found another company to distribute the film. Fortunately, both of those things seems to have happened and now it’s set to be released on April 13.

To get people ready for the occasion the first trailer for the film has been released. We have it for you right here, of course.

In addition to Hemsworth, the film features Kristen Connolly, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford and Brian White.

Take a look at the trailer after the break.

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It’s no secret that one of the most highly anticipated comic book movies of all time is Marvel’s upcoming The Avengers. Directed by Joss Whedon, the movie’s geek pedigree could not be better.

It features all your favorite characters including Iron Man, Captain America, Nick Fury, Thor and Scarlett Johansson in skintight leather. Come one, what more could you want from a comic book movie?

Marvel has released a few new pics from The Avengers to get you even more psyched to see it. Not that you probably needed it. Like us, we’re sure you’ll be in line on day one for what promises to be the greatest Marvel movie of al time.

Check out the pics after the break. The Avengers, which stars Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson, arrives in theaters on May 4, 2012.

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Remember that movie The Cabin in the Woods we first told you about almost a year ago? What ever happend to that one?

It had a lot going for it, coming from Cloverfield writer and director Drew Goddard and co-written by the man himself Joss Whedon. It also starts Chris Hemsworth, soon to be seen in Marvel’s Thor extravaganza.

With all that going for it, why haven’t we seen it yet? Well, it was initially postponed for conversion to 3D. Why? Who knows.

Then, it fell victim to MGM’s money troubles and ended up being put on the shelf until the company emerged from its money troubles or found another company to distribute the film. Fortunately, both of those things seems to have happened and Lionsgate has agreed to take on the film and bring it to a waiting audience.

With all this good news we still have a bit of bad. We don’t know the exact release date for the film and we still don’t know exactly what the film is about. However, based on prior experience with films of this type we can guess it involves several attractive people, a cabin, blood, death, creatures and a bit of humor.  Sounds good. I’m in.

In addition to Hemsworth, the film features Kristen Connolly, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford and Brian White. When we get an official release date, we’ll let you know.

Yes fans, the show that most believe was canceled way too early is coming back to TV once again. That show is, of course, Joss Whedon’s Firefly. Sadly, it won’t be for brand new episodes or anything like that.

Instead, the Science Channel will air the series in its entirety, plus some new and pretty cool extras. The channel will wrap each episode of the show with interstitial segments starring renowned physicist Dr. Michio Kaku (who you might remember form the days of Leo Laporte’s Screen Savers show on Tech TV), who will discuss the science behind the show’s sci-fi concepts.

According to 20th Century Fox, the studio that originally produced the show and also killed it early, this will be the first time Firefly has aired on basic cable channel since 2008, when it ran on USA Network. Firefly premieres on Science Channel on March 6 at 8 p.m., with the two hour pilot, followed by the first episode at 10 p.m.

Following that, Firefly episodes will air every Sunday. Don’t worry, they will be their original intended order and upgraded to high definition. At least they got that part right.

Joss Whedon fans (or “Whedonites) may be loyal, but their loyalty is nothing compared to their originality when it comes to their idol’s creations. They’ve given us some cool art, and plenty of fan vids to swoon over, and now it’s Firefly’s turn, as it gets a classic 80′s makeover. Well, at least the intro titles do.

The original intro was good, and just about every fan knows the lyrics, but it didn’t do much for the typical sci-fi fan. The cool cats over at io9 put together this little 80′s rendition of the Firefly intro, in all of it’s Western/Deep Space glory. Think of Quantum Leap meets Brisco County Jr., all squeezed into about 90 seconds.

Check out the intro video after the jump, and if you’re asking yourself “What about Simon Tam??”, it seems that he deserved his own personal show.

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It goes without saying most genre fans enjoyed Edward Norton’s Incredible Hulk. At least, we enjoyed it far more than when Ang Lee or Bill Bixby had a crack at it. The film did moderately well in the box office, considering how much of the year was dominated by Marvel’s other film, Iron Man. Now it seems that Norton and Marvel will be parting ways, as they’ll be recasting the jade giant for The Avengers.

In a report by Hitfix, they announced Marvel is starting to shop around for a new Hulk for Joss Whedon’s upcoming superhero team flick. In direct response to their article, President of Production at Marvel, Kevin Feige, put out a statement.

We have made the decision to not bring Ed Norton back to portray the title role of Bruce Banner in the Avengers. Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members.

Given the size of the production and cast, this decision probably made sense as far as Marvel was concerned. However, Edward Norton may have other ideas, at least according to his agent.

In a direct response, Norton’s Agent Brian Swardstrom of WME, said:

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