Although it’s not drawing the massive crowds that its predecessor did, Avengers: Age of Ultron is still putting up very big numbers. The 3D superhero sequel added another $77.2 million to its gross, a 60% drop from its muscular opening last weekend. Despite a hefty drop, that is the second-best second weekend in history (after The Avengers’ $103.1 million take). Meanwhile, the film’s $312.6 million total after 10 days is the third-best in history, just slightly below the $313.8 million that The Dark Knight made in the same span seven summers ago.
For movies based on Marvel Comics, though, the drop is in the higher end, worse than the last two Iron Mans (-59%) and Thor: The Dark World (-57%), although a bit better than The Amazing Spider-Man 2 last year (-61%). With a large drop, more lukewarm word-of-mouth and competition from Pitch Perfect 2 and Mad Max: Fury Road next weekend, this should be Age of Ultron’s last frame at the top of the charts.
Regardless, Disney shouldn’t be upset that the film is still a virtual lock for biggest grosser of the summer. The drop is better than The Dark Knight Rises, a sequel that dropped a bit from its phenomenon predecessor, and it’s performing about 10% better than the Caped Crusader follow-up at this point, so surpassing that film’s $448.1 million total is certainly attainable. A final above $450 million is still likely if the drops measure out over the coming weeks.
As the testosterone-filled action at Marvel kept bringing in crowds, the estrogen-packed counter-programming, Hot Pursuit, failed to offer much of an alternative. The comedy starring Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara could only eke out $13.3 million this weekend. That is below the starts for several of Reese’s mid-level hits, such as This Means War ($17.4 million), Water for Elephants ($16.8 million) and Just Like Heaven ($16.4 million). Sofia Vergara, while a popular draw on ABC’s Modern Family, is mostly unproven at the box office.