Joss Whedon's Marvel tentpole, ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron,’ opens to $191.3 million in North America, the number-two domestic opening of all time behind ‘The Avengers.’
Joss Whedon's Avengers: Age of Ultron opened to $191.3 million from 4,276 theaters in North America, the number-two domestic opening of all time behind The Avengers. Overseas, where the Marvel tentpole began opening last weekend, Age of Ultron earned another $168 million from 88 territories for a foreign total of $439 million and early worldwide haul of $631 million. In only 12 days, the super hero film has surpassed the lifetime global earnings of Captain America ($371 million), Thor ($449 million), Iron Man ($583 million) and Iron Man 2 ($622 million).
Disney and Marvel now boast the top three opening weekends of all time domestically, thanks to the two Avengers titles and Iron Man 3, which debuted to $174.1 million in May 2013. Age of Ultron pushes Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 ($169.2 million) to number four.
On Friday, Age of Ultron, produced for $250 million, grossed a massive $84.5 million domestically, the biggest opening day for a super hero film and the second-biggest of all time after the final Harry Potter film ($91.7 million). In 2012, Avengers pulled in $80.8 million on its first Friday. However, Age of Ultron lagged behind Avengers on Saturday ($57.2 million versus $69.6 million).
Lionsgate’s The Age of Adaline came in second place at the North American box office, taking in $6.3 million for a 10-day cume of $23.4 million.
Universal’s Furious 7 followed in third place with $6.1 million for a total of $330.5 million domestically. Overseas, the latest installment in the Fast and Furious franchise finished Sunday with a global gross of $1.429 billion, passing up Deathly Hallows ($1.341 billion) to become the fourth highest top-grossing title of all time at the worldwide box office behind Avengers, Avatar ($2.8 billion) and Titanic ($2.2 billion).
Sony's Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 came in fourth place with $5.5 million, pushing the film’s domestic total to of $51.2 million.
DreamWorks Animation’s Home rounded out the top five with $3.3 million. Now in its sixth week at the box office, the animated feature has now earned $158.1 million in North America. Overseas Home has made a total of $168.1 million for a global tally of $326.2 million.
Disney’s live-action Cinderella remake came in sixth place with $2.4 million for a domestic total of $193.6 million. Overseas the Kenneth Branagh-directed feature has made $300.6 million for a total of $494.2 million worldwide.
A24 Films’ sci-fi indie hit Ex Machina crossed $10 million in North America, grossing $2.2 million from 1,279 theaters for a total of $10.9 million and a seventh place finish.
In eighth place, Universal and Blumhouse Production’s R-rated micro-budget horror movie Unfriended brought in an additional $2 million, pushing the film’s domestic total to $28.5 million.
Disney's Disneynature documentary Monkey Kingdom placed at number nine for the third weekend in a row, taking in $1.2 million from 1,732 theaters for a domestic total of $12.5 million.
Rounding out the list at number 10 is The Weinstein Company’s Woman in Gold, which made $1.7 million over its fifth week out. Starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds, the drama has now made a total of $24.6 million at the domestic box office.
Box office numbers were obtained on boxofficemojo.com.
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
