Box Office: ‘Men in Black’ Overthrow ‘Avengers’

Sony Pictures‘ (NYSE:SNE) Men in Black 3 — starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith — is the current king of the box office after earning more than $70 million over Memorial Day weekend. The action comedy unseated Walt Disney‘s (NYSE:DIS) Avengers, which smashed box-office opening weekend records, and had held the No. 1 spot for three weeks.

“We took over the world this weekend,” Rory Bruer, Sony’s head of distribution, told Fox News. “It’s so exciting to see Will and company back in this franchise. I certainly think that most people who’ve seen the film think it’s the best of the franchise.”

Although both The Avengers and Men in Black 3 have garnered box-office success, the start of the summer movie season has been less-than inspiring. However, some analysts think that the upcoming release of the eagerly anticipated The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man, could revive the season and even beat last year’s record-breaking $4.4 billion in ticket sales.

“After five weeks of summer, to only have two hits, that’s tough,” Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Fox. “We definitely need to slingshot back. I was on record predicting record revenue for this summer, and now I’m getting worried. Summer is only 18 weeks, so we don’t have a lot of time, but we do have a lot of big movies coming.”