It’s so common for studios to botch a film release, that
it’s a surprise when they do it right. And in the case of Captain America: The Winter Solder, Marvel and Disney did it perfectly.

No doubt seeing that they had a real blockbuster on their
hands, one that almost brilliantly hits all the right buttons and would have a
broader appeal even outside the regular fanboy audience, Marvel and Disney had
to figure out when to open the film to best maximize its potential.

The usual expected summer release would be a problem
due to a lack of available dates and tough competition in early May. For the past few years, May has been the “official”
start of the summer film season, which has already locked in Spider Man 2, followed by Godzilla.

So why not early April when there’s no competition? With
the exceptions of the Johnny Depp
sci-fi movie Transcendence and Rio 2 which is aimed for kids, there isn’t
anything that could give Captain America any real competition for the rest of the month. So, for the first
weekend in April the result was spectacular with a $37 million Friday opening (the biggest
ever for a film in April) and an astounding $96.2 million weekend gross, way above the $85 million that had been predicted two weeks ago.

And to add to that, the film has also already made another $207 million overseas in Europe, South America, Asia and South Africa, where Captain America opened the week before. It all amounts to just over $303 million, making it a monster that’s going to have box office legs for quite a while. Could the film hit the coveted one billion mark worldwide? We’ll have to wait and see, but it looks good so far.

As for last week’s No. 2 film Noah, it took a hit because of Captain
America, just like every other film this weekend, but Noah still came in at No.
with $17 million for a $72.3 million total. But, as expected, the film is doing even better overseas with another $106.2 million so far.