Joss Whedon’s Avengers has topped American and Canadian movie theaters for a third straight weekend, becoming Walt Disney Pictures’ highest-grossing film ever. The superhero film took in USD 55.6 million for the studio, followed by Peter Berg’s Battleship with sales of USD 25.5 million and Sacha Baron Cohen’s Dictator with USD 17.4 million. “Great marketing can buy you a big opening weekend, but only a crowd-pleasing and solid movie can get you to where ‘The Avengers’ has gone,” said president of Hollywood.com’s box-office unit Paul Dergarabedian. The Avengers opened over the weekend of May 4 with a sale record of USD 207.4 million and set another record the following week with USD 103.1 million, the most ever for a film in its second weekend. The film recounts the story of Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. who brings together a team of super humans to form the ‘Avengers’ and save the Earth from Loki and his army. Based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name, The Avengers has become the highest-grossing film in Disney’s history with USD 1.18 billion in global sales, surpassing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.