'Snow White' Wins Box Office; 'Avengers' Passes 'Dark Knight' to Become Third Highest Grossing Film of All Time

"Snow White and The Huntsman" surprised all scoring an outstanding $56 million at box office this past weekend.

After prognosticators were scared at prospect of a box office failure for Snow White and the Hunstman, the film surpassed all expectation bringing in $56.26 million at the box office.  The total made it the fourth highest opening this year behind Avengers, The Hungers Games and The Lorax. The film also opened higher than MIB 3 and the previous Snow White adaptation "Mirror Mirror." According to Boxofficemojo.com, Universal's biggest asset to its success was its marketing campaign which emphasized the visuals as well as the story line. It also targeted men by unveiling a campaign that stated "this is no fairy tale" and revealing a dark nature to the movie. The marketing wound up being a success considering the fact that 47 percent of the audience was men.

Another interesting development was that 52 percent of the audience was 30 years of age and up. While the film was impressive, forecasters worry whether the film will hold up due to the next few releases which include the highly anticipated "Prometheus."  

The film which stars Kristen Stewart and Academy Award winner Charlize Theron already has a sequel in the works.

Coming in second place Men in Black 3 scored $29.3 million in its second weekend. The $230 million film has grossed $112 million and according to Rottentomatoes.com it should end up with a $180 million total making it the worst grossing of the three films. On the other hand, "The Avengers" broke yet another record by becoming the third highest grossing film of all time when it surpassed "The Dark Knight." According to Variety, the film grossed $20.3 million for a total gross of $552.7 million.

The other new release "For Greater Glory" made a disappointing $1.8 million for a $2,378 per theater average. The Eva Longoria-Andy Garcia starrer place 10^th and it will be lucky if can reach $10 million by the end of its theatrical run.

On the Indie front, "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" continued its strong run placing number 6 and grossing $4.6 million for a total of $25.5 million.

Focus Features' "Moonrise Kingdom" also continued a strong run grossing $868,681 from 16 theaters for a total of $1.7 million in two weeks.

Piranha 3DD scored a terrible debut with $179,000 in 86 theaters. That being said Weinstein hopes to make most from the Video on Demand   and as a result according to the Hollywood Reporter "he muted theatrical expectations." According to early reports the film has done good business on VOD.