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Movie Monday: Captain America Takes Down Harry

captain america.JPGHarry Potter? Soooo last week. There’s a new hero in theaters now: Or, should I say, a new superhero.

Captain America augmented his red, white and blue color scheme this weekend with a whole lotta green—$65.8 million, to be exact. That officially makes Cap the biggest superhero star of the summer (on opening weekend, at least),with Captain America: The First Avenger barely besting the $65.7 mil that Thor brought in during his opening frame. (X-Men: First Class and Green Lantern both landed in the mid-$50 million range during their opening weekends.) Not bad for a distinctly old-fashioned hero fronting a very retro film, what with its bevy of evil Nazis and good ol’ American values.

Frankly, I thought the derby for the week’s top spot would be closer than it was. Captain America was a big draw to be sure, but Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was coming off the biggest opening weekend in history ($169.1 million), and I expected there to still be some magic in the franchise yet. But, while the $48 million that Harry took home this weekend is still quite a bit of money—and enough to land it in second place—it still suffered a precipitous drop, losing nearly 72% of its first-week audience.

Another newcomer, the R-rated Friends With Benefits, slipped into third place with $18.5 million—suggesting that while Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis may have made some friends in the Marine Corps for accepting dates to various service balls, they didn’t get a great deal of box office benefit from them.