The Avengers' Opening Day: $80.5 Million!

Box-office performance is Hollywood's second-biggest ever; blows away The Hunger Games, The Dark Knight, more; is the all-time weekend record next?

The Avengers is getting closer to officially becoming the biggest comic-geek thing ever at the box office.

The Marvel team-up movie grossed $80.5 million on Friday, its studio estimated, Hollywood's second biggest opening day ever.

And, yes, the biggest comic-geek thing ever.

The total, which includes the movie's stunning midnight performance, puts The Avengers behind only the final Harry Potter film, Deathly Hallows Part 2, which debuted with an unreal $91.1 million last summer.

The Avengers' $80.5 million is almost as unreal.

It's nearly $10 million bigger than the next-highest opening day: the $71.6 million posted by Twilight's New Moon.

And it's more than $13 million bigger than the opening days of both The Hunger Games, the year's biggest movie (for now?), and The Dark Knight, the biggest comic-geek thing ever (until now).

The question now is how high can The Avengers, already at about $415 million worldwide, go yet?

Can it surpass the now-perhaps modest expectations of a $150 million opening weekend? Can it go all the way past The Dark Knight ($158.4 million)? Can it go all the way past Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($169.2 million)?

Can it become the biggest thing ever, period?

At this point, it's probably best not to underestimate the Hulk.

Here's a complete rundown of the top 10 all-time opening days, as compiled per BoxOfficeMojo.com stats:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, $91.1 million
2. The Avengers, $80.5 million
3. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, $72.7 million
4. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 1, $71.6 million
5. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, $68.5 million
6. The Hunger Games, $67.3 million
7. The Dark Knight, $67.2 million
8. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, $62 million
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, $61.7 million
10. Spider-Man 3, $60 million