Marvel’s The Avengers opened as the top film in U.S. and Canadian theaters, kicking off the summer movie season with a record $200.3 million in sales this weekend for Walt Disney Co. (DIS) Revenue topped the previous best of $169.2 million set by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 last year, researcher Hollywood.com Box-Office said today in an e-mailed statement. Analysts had forecast sales of $150 million to $170 million for “The Avengers.”

Summer ticket sales are expected to surpass the record of $4.4 billion set last year, according to Jeff Bock, box-office analyst at Exhibitor Relations Co. Other films scheduled in the coming weeks include Warner Bros.’ The Dark Knight Rises, directed by Christopher Nolan, and Sony Corp. (6758)’s Men in Black 3, a sequel that reunites Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as government agents managing Earth’s secret alien population.

The Avengers is the first Marvel movie Disney is distributing since buying the comic-book company for $4.2 billion in 2009. The movie provides Burbank, California-based Disney with a hit after the box-office failure of “John Carter,” the science-fiction film released in March that resulted in a $200 million loss for the company. (Source)

Just a quick reminder … Cobie can now be seen as Agent Maria Hill in The Avengers this weekend! The Avengers has now hit North American theatres everywhere! Check your local listings for theatres and showtimes! Be apart of the experience!

While promoting The Avengers, Cobie Smulders and Clark Gregg played a game of charades. Can you figure out what movie Cobie was acting out? Take a look below:

How huge is The Avengers? The comic-book event has now grossed more money than all but our moviegoing nation’s biggest box-office hits of the year—and, as you may have noticed, it hasn’t opened here yet.

Since opening in some countries on Wednesday, the team-up flick has grossed a combined $178.4 million through Sunday, its studio estimated. If that take were a domestic total, it’d place The Avengers between Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax and 21 Jump Street for third place among 2012′s biggest moneymakers.

As an international take, it’s more than Battleship grossed in in its first two weeks overseas, and it’s not that far off from the international total of what was the year’s biggest box-office star: The Hunger Games.

“The Avengers” set all-time weekend records everywhere from Argentina to New Zealand. Its biggest overall haul came from the United Kingdom, where the film stood at $24.7 million so far.

More big money presumably is to come. The film has yet to open in the monster markets of China, Japan and Russia. Oh, and, yes, the film hasn’t been released here in North America yet, either.

Not that U.S. and Canadian-based fans are watching their clocks… (Source)

The Collider.com sat down with The Avengers cast and director to discuss the highly anticipated film. I’ve highlighted the Cobie portion of the interview, take a look below:

Cobie, what does being a part of a superhero movie like this mean to you, and did you think about getting to watch it with your daughter?
COBIE SMULDERS: It means there are a lot more action figures in our house. I think we have all of them, and she knows all of their names. But, it’s very cool to be a woman in a man’s world, in this film, and then have my daughter see that. That’s probably the coolest thing.

What was your most memorable moment making this movie?
COBIE SMULDERS: I was very much a newbie, coming in. When I got to do a scene where most of them were there, and I got to see everybody sitting at the table for the first time, I got to stand back. I also loved any moment I got to work with [Joss Whedon] because I’ve been wanting to work with him for a very long time.

Wwhat was it like to transition from a weekly TV sitcom to being a part of this big blockbuster ensemble?
COBIE SMULDERS: It’s definitely a shift in schedule, alone. I made it a point to do a lot of training to prepare myself for this role, with weapons and mainly to get myself comfortable using them. That was the thing I tried to do the most. In terms of schedule, it’s very different. I’m very blessed at How I Met Your Mother. We have a very nice schedule. This was very good, but we had a lot of stunts to do and a lot of fun things to explode.

Read the Full Interview: www.collider.com

On the latest episode of ABC’s Nightline late-night television news program, a six-minute behind-the-scenes feature on Marvel’s The Avengers movie was presented. Although nothing too considerably new, there are a few interview with the ensemble cast and director, in addition to five seconds of new footage; exciting right?

Cobie does not appear in the interview, but it is still worth checking out!

Another clip from the highly anticipated film, The Avengers has been released. This scene features a show down between Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) himself. The Avengers comes to theaters May 4th, 2012 and stars Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Robert Downey Jr., Cobie Smulders, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson. The film is directed by Joss Whedon.

Marvel has released a new batch of production stills from the upcoming film, The Avengers … and a few of them feature Cobie! We cannot contain our excitement for Cobie to be on the big screen! Head over to the gallery for the latest additions.

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