Captain America: The Winter Soldier has started out of the gate strong at the box office on Friday, easily topping all competition and possibly setting a new April opening weekend record.
The Walt Disney and Marvel film grossed a strong $37.04 million, which includes the late Thursday earnings of $10.2 million, reports Forbes. The film is projected to only earn around $90 million for the weekend, despite its strong start.
The superhero film has started stronger than the first Captain America film, which only earned $25.7 million, with much less help from Thursday night showings. By the end of the weekend, the film will likely have combined worldwide grosses of $250 million.
Last weekend's top film Noah, from Paramount, not surprisingly isn't going to challenge for first place after $4.9 million on Friday. The film is expected to gross about $16 million for the weekend, which would bring the film's total domestic take up to $70 million.
Lionsgate's Divergent was right behind Russell Crowe on Friday with $4.1 million, but will likely take third place with $13 million expected for the weekend, according to Deadline. The film passed the $100 million mark on Friday.
God's Not Dead continues to surprise and earned $2.2 million and is projected to earn $8 million for the weekend, bringing up its cume to $33 million. Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel continues to do well after earning $1.8 million. The film is projected to make a little over $6 million for the weekend.
Disney's disappointing Muppets Most Wanted grossed $1.5 million and could challenge Anderson for the fifth spot with projected earnings of $6.3 million. Fox's Mr. Peabody And Sherman grossed $1.29 million and likely will earn $5.1 million, which would get the film to the $100 million mark.
Last week's disappointing flop Sabotage earned $560,000 at the box office and might get $1.89 million by Sunday, which would get the film to a two-week box office total of about $8.6 million.