Box Office Milestone: 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' Joins the Billion-Dollar Club

Joss Whedon directed the superhero tentpole for Disney and Marvel Studios.

Disney and Marvel Studios' Avengers: Age of Ultron jumped the $1 billion mark at the global box office on Friday, becoming the third Marvel title to do so after The Avengers and Iron Man 3.

And it's the eighth Disney release to surpass this threshold.

Through Thursday, the movie's global total was $990 million, including a massive three-day China total of $69 million and a domestic total of $333 million. In North America, Joss Whedon's Age of Ultron is on the verge of overtaking Furious 7 ($339.8 million) to become the top-grossing release of the year to date.

Age of Ultron becomes the 21st movie to gross $1 billion or more at the worldwide box office. The first Avengers, also directed by Whedon, is No. 3 on the coveted list ($1.51 billion), and Iron Man 3 is No. 7 ($1.22 billion).

The superhero mashup still has a ways to go in terms of catching up with Universal's Furious 7, which has earned $1.47 billion since its April 2015 release, making it the top performer of the year to date globally.

Other territory totals include South Korea ($76 million), the U.K. ($63 million), Mexico ($41 million), Brazil ($39 million) and Russia ($32 million).