Okay folks, it’s confession time. I thought Jack Reacher, the Christopher McQuarrie-directed adaptation of Lee Child‘s novel One Shot that courted major controversy among fans of Child’s books when Tom Cruise was cast as Reacher even though he hardly fit the character’s description as a blonde, hulking bruiser who spoke softly and carried a big stick called himself, was one of the finest and most undervalued movies of 2012.

McQuarrie turned the novel into a classical, old school action thriller that would not be out of place in the filmographies of directors like John Frankenheimer and Don Siegel. The fist fights, shootouts, and car chases were executed and filmed with lean, professional precision and edited with fewer cuts than you would find in most modern action scenes. [...]

Barring any late mega-surges, it doesn’t appear that Marvel’s juggernaut The Avengers will pass James Cameron’s Avatar as the all-time biggest box office success. It will, however, do something only two other movies have been able to do: pass $600 million domestically.

For the longest time, Cameron’s other record-breaker, Titanic, sat untouched at the top of the mountain at just over $600 million (with an additional almost $58 million added after its recent 3D re-release). Then came Avatar, slaughtering every record in its path en route to a stunning $749 million domestic haul (with an additional $30 million or so tacked on with a special edition re-release, bringing it to over $2.7 billion worldwide). [...]

After demolishing the domestic opening weekend box office record, Disney and Marvel’s The Avengers has officially passed the $1 billion mark worldwide.

The movie accomplished the feat in just 19 days, having been released internationally a week or so earlier than it was domestically. Overseas its grand total now sits at $627.3 million, while here in the States it’s now at $373 million. [...]

It’s looking more and more like it’s going to be a big summer at the box office. If The Hunger Games The Hunger Games passing $600 million wasn’t enough (I know, it came out in March—movies don’t follow the seasons accurately), now the ultimate in superhero movies, The Avengers, has arrived, and it is laying waste to all that stand before it.

The movie, which is directed by geek god Joss Whedon, had already scored multiple hundreds of millions of dollars overseas before finally being released this past Friday here in the States. [...]