Weekend Box Office: The Calm Before Ultron

Although it’s not yet playing in the United States, ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’ is already dominating box office news. The Marvel sequel opened in 44 international markets this weekend and grossed a whopping $201.2 million. In most countries, the numbers exceeded those of the original ‘Avengers’. Get ready for what is likely to be the next highest-grossing debut of all time.

In the meantime, for the fourth consecutive week, ‘Furious 7‘ sat atop the domestic box office charts. The last title to reign supreme four weeks in a row was the original ‘Hunger Games’ in 2012. ‘Furious 7’ eased 37%, added $18.2 million to its domestic run (which now totals $320.5 million), and brought its worldwide total to $1.32 billion. With ‘Avengers’ knocking at the door, the strength of ‘Furious 7’ is surely about to peter out – but it had one hell of a ride while it stood unchallenged.

In its sophomore weekend, ‘Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2‘ remained in the #2 spot. While the sequel’s opening weekend was much weaker than the original ‘Mall Cop‘, its soft 34% decline in attendance has held over better than expected. The $15.5 million second weekend brought its run up to $43.9 million.

Lionsgate’s romantic drama ‘The Age of Adaline‘ debuted in the #3 spot to a less-than-impressive $13.3 million. With strong word-of-mouth, the $14 million picture ought to make its way to the $30 million mark. Although it won’t be a major win for the studio, it should at least near profitability by then.

DreamWorks’ ‘Home‘ continues to stay strong with its long legs. Slipping just 22% in attendance, the animated family flick earned another $8.3 million in its fifth week, bringing its domestic run up to $153.7 million.

After opening in third place last week, the microbudget horror flick ‘Unfriended‘ dropped an unkind 60% to round out the Top 5. Despite the nasty fall, the extra $6.2 million has pushed the movie’s domestic total up to $25.1 million. That’s a great sum for a picture produced for just $1 million.

With fantastic reviews and incredible word-of-mouth, the nationwide expansion of ‘Ex Machina‘ to 1,255 screens proved a smart move. The jump landed the film in the #6 spot with $5.4 million. Combined with the previous two weeks in limited release, its domestic run is now up to $6.9 million. At this rate, it’s on track to pass the $14.1 million earned by ‘Spring Breakers’ to become distributor A24’s most successful title yet.

The faith-based family drama ‘Little Boy‘ isn’t off to a great start. Playing on 1,045 screens, its $2.8 million opening ($2,708 per-screen average) only managed to hit the #13 spot.

The Russell Crowe war drama ‘The Water Diviner‘ didn’t perform much better. On 320 screens, Crowe’s directorial debut opened in 14th place with $1.2 million, a per-screen average of $3,906.

A couple of limited releases had decent starts but aren’t making any noise. Indie dramedy ‘Adult Beginners‘ earned $40,100 from ten locations, but also debuted simultaneously On-Demand. VOD numbers have not been released. Kevin Pollak’s stand-up doc ‘Misery Loves Comedy‘ scored $5,300 from one location.

Top 10:

1. ‘Furious 7’ (Universal) – $18,259,000

2. ‘Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2’ (Sony) – $15,500,000

3. ‘The Age of Adaline’ (Lionsgate) – $13,375,000

4. ‘Home’ (Fox) – $8,300,000

5. ‘Unfriended’ (Universal) – $6,244,000

6. ‘Ex Machina’ (A24) – $5,441,000

7. ‘The Longest Ride’ (Fox) – $4,365,000

8. ‘Get Hard’ (Warner Bros.) – $3,905,000

9. ‘Monkey Kingdom’ (Buena Vista) – $3,551,000

10. ‘Woman in Gold’ (Weinstein) – $3,501,000

1 comment

  1. William Henley

    huh, kinda surprised about ex machina. I was expecting much higher numbers, considering all its hype. I was thinking with numbers like that, it was going to be a bomb, but then I looked it up and saw that it only had a budget of 11 million euro. I haven’t seen it yet, but isn’t this a heavy Visual Effects film? Seems like a really low budget, and a really low turnout considering the number of screens and the amount of publicity it has received

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