Weekend Box Office Report: April 4-6, 2014

Captain America's back!

Marvel's star-spangled hero returned to theaters in explosive fashion this weekend, putting CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER at the top of the box office with an opening of $96.2 million!

That opening sets a new record for April, defeating FAST FIVE's $86.1 million first weekend in 2011. For Marvel's cinematic universe, the flag-wearing super-soldier's second solo opening ranks higher than last November's THOR: THE DARK WORLD ($85.7 million) but behind the IRON MAN trilogy and the studio's record-breaking superhero assembly THE AVENGERS.

On top of that, the patriotic shield-slinging champion got a head start in the rest of the world and has collected an additional $207 million internationally, already putting its global total over $300 million.

Nearly everyone seems more than satisfied with the sequel, which combines conspiracy thriller elements with all the expected widesceen slam-bang fireworks of Marvel's blockbusters. Paying crowds gave Cap's post-AVENGERS adventure a straight 'A' CinemaScore, and critics showed their support with an 89% average on Rotten Tomatoes.

The big-budget Bible story NOAH drifted down to second place with $17 million, off by 61% from its opening last week. Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky's divisive apocalypse tale has gathered $178.5 million worldwide so far. Dropping to third was the young-adult adaptation DIVERGENT with $13 million as it passed the $100 million domestic mark during its third week of release.

GOD'S NOT DEAD continues to assure audiences of the Creator's apparent well-being as it advances to fourth place with $7.7 million after adding nearly 600 more screens. And crowds keep rushing to spend their weekends in Wes Anderson's THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, which rose to the fifth floor with $6.3 million (at this pace it has potential to crack $100 million worldwide).

MUPPETS MOST WANTED and MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN were fighting for the family crowds in sixth and seventh, with the latter hitting the domestic $100 million mark this week. After that it was practically a tie for last place as Arnie's SABOTAGE, the videogame racer NEED FOR SPEED (likely to cross $200 million globally) and Liam Neeson's airborne thriller NON-STOP battled at the bottom of the list.

Outside the chart, 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE left the Top 10 as the Scarlett Johansson sci-fi movie UNDER THE SKIN opened in limited release to a decent $35k per-screen average, and the Halle Berry drama FRANKIE & ALICE was delivered to 171 screens for a limp $2k per-screen. And Disney's unstoppable FROZEN climbed to #9 on the all-time biggest worldwide grossing movies, pushing past THE DARK KNIGHT RISES.

Next weekend brings the Kevin Costner sports drama DRAFT DAY, the supernatural horror flick OCULUS, the CG feathered family sequel RIO 2,  the Nicolas Cage drama JOE and the Nick Frost dancing comedy CUBAN FURY.

Tonight is the highly anticipated return of HBO's series "Game of Thrones". Who is your favorite character on the show? VOTE HERE!