´Avengers´ muscles rivals aside to continue box office dominance

LOS ANGELES: "Avengers: Infinity War" flexed its considerable muscle anew this weekend in North American theaters, pulling in a robust $112.5 million and leaving other top films in its dust, according to industry estimates.

The three-day take by the Disney/Marvel superhero epic gave it the second-highest second weekend of all time, behind only "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." Only five movies have hit the $100 million mark in their second weekends, according to Variety.com.

"Avengers" sees a veritable army of superheroes -- including Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Ironman (Robert Downey Jr.) and Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) -- joining forces to save the universe from powerful purple alien Thanos (Josh Brolin).

Globally, "Avengers" has hit the $1 billion mark in just 11 days -- the fastest ever -- and it has yet to open in China.

But with its enormous success, "Avengers" has left little oxygen for its competitors. The second-highest North American grosser, new rom-com "Overboard," trailed in its distant wake at just $14.8 million. Anna Faris and Eugenio Derbez star in the Lionsgate remake of a 1987 movie about a struggling single mother who persuades a rich playboy with amnesia that they are married.

In third spot was Paramount´s sci-fi horror film "A Quiet Place," at $7.6 million. The near-wordless production stars actor/director John Krasinski and his real-life wife Emily Blunt as a couple silently struggling to protect their family from blind aliens that track their prey by sound.

STX Films´ comedy "I Feel Pretty," starring Amy Schumer as a self-conscious woman who suffers a head injury and then sees herself as ravishingly beautiful, was fourth at $4.9 million.

And in fifth was "Rampage," from Warner Bros., at $4.6 million. The film follows Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson as a primatologist who befriends an albino gorilla, which grows to enormous size after a rogue experiment before teaming up with Johnson against invading monsters.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

"Tully" ($3.2 million)

"Black Panther" ($3.1 million)

"Truth or Dare" ($1.9 million)

"Super Troopers 2" ($1.8 million)

"Bad Samaritan" ($1.8 million)