'Avengers: Age of Ultron' continues to top box office, 'Hot Pursuit' can't keep up
"Avengers: Age of聽Ultron" iced out "Hot Pursuit" at the weekend box office, picking up $77.2 million and topping charts for a second consecutive time.
Disney and Marvel's comic book adventure has made $312.9 million domestically since debuting stateside. That massive figure makes it the second-fastest film to clear $300 million domestically, and its sophomore weekend is the second biggest in movie history, surpassing "Avatar's" $75.6 million haul.
The film "Avengers: Age of聽Ultron" trails on both counts? Its predecessor, 2012's "Marvel's The Avengers," which had earned $373 million at a similar point in its run after scoring a $103 million second weekend.
"It's a dominant force," said聽Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak. "These second weekend numbers would be a great opening weekend debut for a lot of films."
Internationally, "Avengers: Age of聽Ultron" picked up $68 million, pushing the film to $875.3 million globally. Given that major markets such as聽China聽and聽Japan聽are still left to open and domestic audiences continue to embrace the film, "Avengers: Age of聽Ultron" should have no trouble becoming the second 2015 release to clear $1 billion globally, behind "Furious 7."
With Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, and the rest of the super team dominating ticket sales, Warner Bros.' "Hot Pursuit" landed with a thud, picking up a frosty $13.3 million opening from 3,003 locations. The Reese Witherspoon and聽Sofia Vergara聽retread of "The Heat" was crippled by withering reviews, with its debut falling short of projections that pegged an opening of $18 million or higher. It's also on the low end of Witherspoon's recent bows for more commercial fare such as "Water for Elephants" ($16.8 million debut) and "This Means War" ($17.4 million debut).
"Given our expectations it was a little lighter than we had hoped for," said聽Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. distribution executive vice president.
He argued the negative critical reaction took a toll.
"Where we did business, we way over-indexed in the South and in the small towns," said Goldstein. "We were lighter in the East in review-driven markets."
The film about a cop (Witherspoon) trying to protect a drug boss' widow (Vergara) was also backed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Witherspoon's Pacific Standard production company. "Hot Pursuit" attracted an audience that was 62% female and 82% over 25 years old.
Beyond the modest debut number, a C+ CinemaScore means word-of-mouth will be of the cautionary variety. The budget was a relatively economical $35 million, but the film will struggle to become profitable without a much warmer reception in foreign territories.
In third place, Lionsgate's "The Age of Adaline" earned roughly $5.6 million, dropping 10% from its previous haul and bringing its total to $31.5 million.
Universal's "Furious 7" slid into fourth place with $5.2 million pushing its domestic total to $338.4 million after six weeks in theaters. Globally, the action sequel has earned $1.5 billion.
Sony's "Paul Blart Mall Cop 2" snagged fifth place with just under $5.2 million, bringing its domestic total to $58.1 million.
A24 continued to expand "Ex Machina," moving it from 1,279 theaters to 2,004 locations where it earned $3.5 million. The twisty sci-fi thriller has made $15.7 million during its theatrical run.
Among art house titles,聽IFC Films聽released the Jack Black/James Marsden high school reunion comedy "The D Train" on 1,009 screens, where it did a mediocre $469,185. Fox Searchlight tried to capitalize on the聽Mother's Day holiday for "Far From the Madding Crowd," moving from 10 to 99 theaters and pulling in $760,721 in the process. The adaptation of聽Thomas Hardy's classic novel has earned $1 million since debuting last week.
Despite the presence of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the overall box office trailed ticket sales from the year-ago period by roughly 5%. "Avengers: Age of聽Ultron" easily topped the second weekend of "Amazing Spider-Man 2," which made $35.5 million in its sophomore frame, but "Hot Pursuit" paled in comparison to "Neighbors'" $49 million debut.
Next weekend brings "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Pitch Perfect 2," two highly anticipated sequels that should goose ticket sales.
