Traditionally the long Memorial Day weekend marked the start of the Summer movie season. In the last decade that unofficial date has shifted to the beginning of May, but this is still a marquee weekend for film. And what better way to celebrate that than with the return of one of cinema’s biggest stars.

Will Smith hasn’t been in a movie in nearly four years, and his return also marks the return of one of his most beloved characters, Agent J. Men in Black III had a solid debut bringing in $70 Million over the four-day weekend. That comes in a bit below expectations, but ranks as a strong debut none-the-less considering where the franchise was.

While not an actual reboot, the sequel actually proves that the Men in Black universe is still capable of being an entertaining summer destination. The movie also did well overseas, but only doing well is not what Sony was hoping for. If this franchise makes its way to a fourth installment positive word of mouth is going to have to give this film some legs.

Speaking of hot gams, The Avengers might have dropped to second place, but it still managed to impress. Bringing in over $46 Million over the extra long frame represented a very slight dip for the film. This was extra impressive when you consider Men in Black is direct competition for its target audience.

Before I recount the gory details of Battleship‘s disastrous opening weekend, it behooves me to let you know yet again that The Avengers won the weekend. I adore The Avengers, but it has made so much money so fast that we are just about out of things to say about it in the Box Office report.

It settled a measly 46.6% for another $55+ million at the domestic box office. The Avengers scored a few more speed records, such as fastest film to $450 Million domestic, in 10 less days than the next best film. Next weekend will be interesting though, its first (potentially) non-first place hold will give a decent indication of how big of a final total we can expect.

The good news for Battleship is that it isn’t a complete and utter disaster worldwide. With its international release weeks in the film has already made over $200 Million. Of course it made a paltry $25 Million here in the states and will be viewed as a the new John Carter (and THAT film’s reign as biggest cinematic black eye might end up short-lived).

In its second weekend in release The Avengers brought in over $100 Million bucks. I will write that again for effect. In its second weekend in release The Avengers brought in over $100 Million bucks!

That absurd second weekend haul obliterates the second weekend record just as the debut frame obliterated records last week. For reference the previous best second weekend was Avatar with a bit over $75 million. The movie has already cleared a billion in total Box Office and it has only been in US cinemas for 10 days.

So yes, The Avengers continues to draw in the masses and shatter records left and right. At this point in time it seems plausible that the movie will end up as the third most successful film of all time. Why not the top slot if it is doing better than everything else right now? The start of the Summer season is just to hard of a spot for the movie to have the kind of legs required to break that pesky 2 billion dollar plateau.

Domestically this was a very weak weekend. The defending champion held its crown among a very unimpressive selection of new challengers. Think Like A Man dropped about 47% to bring in around $18 Million. The back-to-back wins catapulted the film passed Titanic 3D as the highest grossing film released this month.

The second place finisher was the most recent stop-motion animated film from the guys over at Aardman Studios. The Pirates! Band of Misfits did typically weak for the British Animation Studio who has yet to have a huge box office win despite a quality of output that ranks right up with PIXAR.

The Lucky One sputtered into third place with just over $11 Million, representing a 50% drop over its debut weekend. If the number seems low that’s because it is. The weekend as a whole was incredibly light compared to last year. All of this has the distinct feel of the quiet before the storm as The Avengers comes out next week.

After a very impressive run, The Hunger Games has finally fallen from the top spot of the box office. It held well again, dropping only 31% and bringing in an estimated $14.5 Million, but at the end of the day it was time for a new hit to take over champion duties, and Think Like A Man is a hit.

Bringing in $33 Million, Think Like A Man ranks as one of the biggest openings of the year. The movie surpassed the expectations and becomes another victory notch in Sony’s belt on the year. When you compare Think Like A Man’s opening with other like films it is ahead of nearly all of them. The strong weekend also ranks as Screen Gem’s third number one opening of the year.

Coming in at number two is the next in a seemingly endless line of romantic films hoping to rekindle The Notebook’s fervor. The Lucky One pulled in nearly $23 Million, which actually made more than Nicholas Sparks’ most famous adaptation. However, like another recent Sparks adaptation, Dear John, more money doesn’t translate to more popularity.