Weekend Wrap-Up: Ultron Runs Away from Hot Pursuit

May 12, 2015

The Avengers: Age of Ultron

As expected, The Avengers: Age of Ultron earned first place and Hot Pursuit earned second place. Unfortunately, they missed expectations in terms of raw numbers. They missed expectations so much that the box office fell 44% from last weekend to $131 million. Worse still, this is down 4.1% from the same weekend last year. 2015 still has a lead over 2014 by a margin of 4.6% at $3.57 billion to $3.41 billion. Unfortunately, I think this lead will start to slip this week.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron fell 59% during its second weekend of release to $77.75 million over the weekend giving it a total of $313.40 million after ten days of release. It avoided the 60% drop-off, which would have been the enough for people to write more stories about Marvel overload. It also means getting to $400 million is a relatively easy goal. It might not get there this coming weekend, but it will get there soon. That will likely be enough to cover the film's production budget, while it has been even more profitable internationally, so the studio should be more than happy.

On the other hand, Hot Pursuit failed to find an audience during its opening weekend with $13.94 million. Worse still, its reviews are near the bottom for all wide releases this year at just 6% positive. With Pitch Perfect 2 coming out this weekend, moviegoers looking for a female-centric comedy will likely abandon this flick and it will disappear quite quickly.

The Age of Adaline remained in third place with $5.82 million over the weekend, which represents a decline of just 6%. That's amazing. So far the film has pulled in $31.75 million, which is more than it cost to make. It should get to $40 million and if it can get that far internationally, it will break even during its initial push onto the home market.

Furious 7 slipped to fourth place with $5.41 million over the weekend for a total of $338.55 million after six weeks of release. It too held on very well over the weekend down just 19%. At this pace, it will reach $350 million before it exits theaters.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 dipped only 10% to $5.31 million over the weekend for a total of $58.19 million after four weeks of release. The film has likely already covered its production budget, so it will just need to cover its advertising budget to break even. There's a chance it will get there in theaters, but if not, it will break even during its initial push onto the home market.


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Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, The Age of Adaline, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Furious 7, Pitch Perfect 2, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, Hot Pursuit