BY PAULA SCHWARTZ

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

We told you Samuel L. Jackson would be laughing all the way to the bank. He stopped Tweeting blasts at Times critic A.O. Scott because he’s probably too busy spending his money.

Sunday Walt Disney Studios send out a press release crowing that “The Avengers” set box office records with the biggest three-day domestic weekend ever of $200.3 million for its opening weekend. World-wide, during its 12 days in release, it has grossed $641.8 million.

“The Avengers” is the fastest movie to reach $200 million domestically. It kicked off Friday, May 4, and reached the second highest single day take of all time at $80.5 million. Honors for the highest single day take, according to Box Office Mojo, go to last summer’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at 91.1 million. The numbers most certainly would have been higher on Friday for “The Avengers” except that the kiddies are still in school. But by the end of the weekend “The Avengers” did wind up vanquishing “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2,” which made $169.2 million. The three-day take for “The Dark Knight” was $158,411.483.

Marvel’s “The Avengers” is the first Marvel Studios film to be marketed and distributed by Disney, who announced last month that the sequel to 2011’s “Captain America: The First Avenger” will be released in April 4, 2014 and that a sequel to last summer’s “Thor” is scheduled for release Nov. 15, 2013, while the third installment of the “Iron Man” series, which has earned over $1.2 billion worldwide, will hit theaters May 3, 2013.