Avengers: Age of Ultron Has the Second-Largest Domestic Opening Ever

Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures finally got around to releasing Avengers: Age of Ultron in North America following its international debut last week. Reuniting Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders, joined by new Avengers played by Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Paul Bettany, all to fight James Spader’s Ultron, it scored the second-biggest single day on Friday (including Thursday previews) with $84.5 million. With so much sports-related competition on Saturday including the Kentucky Derby, the big Mayweather-Pacquaio brawl and the seventh game in the Spurs/Clippers playoffs series, the movie took a significant tumble on Saturday to the point where Disney ended up lowering its weekend estimate to $187.7 million. 

UPDATE: Walt Disney Pictures has released a “revised estimate” for Avengers: Age of Ultron, which they’ve increased to $191.3 million for its domestic opening weekend.

That is significantly lower than the early weekend projections that were suggesting that the official summer kick-off blockbuster could open with between $210 and 220 million (including the Weekend Warrior’s prediction). Although it opened lower than the previous installment, it still ended up with more than Iron Man 3‘s $175 million opening, so it can claim the second-biggest opening weekend in North America. This also means that Marvel Studios holds the top three spots for biggest domestic opening weekends, although it’s unlikely Avengers: Age of Ultron will end up anywhere near the $623 million gross for its predecessor, even with a positive “A” CinemaScore.

Internationally, Age of Ultron added another $168 million in 71% of its overseas territories to bring its international total to $439 million, with a $627 million global gross in just 12 days.

The movie is another significant hit for the IMAX Corporation following Furious 7 as they had their first ever $30 million weekend between the two movies with Age of Ultron accounting for $25.2 million on global IMAX screens and Furious 7 doing another $5 million in China and Japan (where Age of Ultron has yet to open). Domestic IMAX theaters accounted for $18 million of that amount on 364 screens with another $7.2 million on 221 IMAX screens in 50 territories. That weekend IMAX gross for Age of Ultron tops the previous global IMAX record (not including China) that was held by The Dark Knight Rises with $23.8 million.

Visit ComingSoon.net for more of this weekend’s box office estimates.

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