It’s official. The Avengers has taken the US box office by storm this weekend in its opening release, with early figures estimating a 0.3m. three-day opening, making it the biggest opening weekend in the States of all time.

If anyone was unconvinced that Joss Whedon wasn’t the right man for the job (and I don’t think I’ve spoken to anyone who was), this is clearly proof of how brilliantly he handled the project for Marvel, bringing together all of our favourite characters that we’ve been enjoying for the past few years with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Until now, the final instalment of the Harry Potter franchise has held the biggest US domestic opening, with 9m., and after early predictions of 5m. for The Avengers, the numbers have just risen even further to top a threshold previously unimaginable, that 0m. mark.

Amazing. Utterly amazing.

In case you’ve been away from all technology/civilisation in the past few months, you can catch up on everything we’ve seen from the film here, including our own review.

Here in the UK, we saw its release (as ‘Avengers Assemble’) last Thursday, 26th April, and as you’re no doubt already aware, it smashed our own box office too, taking a mammoth £15.8m. across its four-day opening weekend.

Its global estimated cumulated total currently sits at $641.8m., including its first three days in the US, which really makes you wonder – is The Avengers going to be the first film to pass the $1bn. threshold in 2012? (Excluding the 3D re-release of The Phantom Menace.)

Courtesy of Deadline, here are a great few little records and facts to enjoy about The Avengers, both in its first three days in North America and its first week internationally.

· Biggest domestic opening weekend of all time.

· Fastest film to reach $200M (3 days).

· Highest Saturday of all time: $69.7M.

· 8th biggest midnights opening.

· Biggest superhero midnights debut.

· Passed domestic totals for Captain America and Thor.

· Passed international box office totals of Captain America ($192M), Iron Man ($266.7M), Thor ($268.3M), and Iron Man 2 ($311.5M) in 12 days of release.

· Domestic weekend estimate from all 4,349 theaters: $200.3M.

· Domestic weekend theater average: $46,063.

· Crossed the $600M global box office threshold today after just 12 days of release.

· Performance to date in key international territories: UK $48.1M, Mexico $40.2M, Australia $32.2M, Korea $31.3M, Brazil $31.0M, France $26.4M, Italy $18.8M, Germany $18.3M, Russia $17.9M, China $17.4M, Spain $14.4M, Taiwan $14.3M, Philippines $11.5M.

· IMAX global total box office: $31.2M

· Cinema Score: A+

· Rotten Tomatoes: 94% positive reviews

· Audience: 50% over 25, 50% under 25; 60% male, 40% female; 55% couples, 24% family, 21% teens.