The Walt Disney Company’s DIS much anticipated Avengers: Age of Ultron amassed a smashing $191.2 million over its debut weekend in North America, finishing as the second biggest opening weekend of all time in the U.S.
However, sullying all expectations, Avengers 2 failed to zoom past the $207.4 million record set by its predecessor The Avengers which scored the biggest opening ever in U.S back in 2012. As per Box Office Mojo, the historic Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao showdown that took place on Saturday offered considerable competition and might have hurt the box office collections.
Also, the reviews this time around were quite mixed unlike The Avengers which garnered some amazing reviews and was billed as the ultimate action movie. Plus, it rarely happens that a sequel matches up to the excitement of the original. The previous Avengers movie had an edge because in it fans could see all their favorite superheroes team up for some out of the world action for the first time ever.
The Avengers not only had a fantastic opening but with a worldwide box office tally of over $1.5 billion, it is the third highest grossing film of all time behind Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc.’s FOXA Avatar and Titanic.
Nevertheless, with $191 million, Avengers 2 has kick started the summer with a bang. All other movies playing out at the theaters were vastly impacted by the Avengers 2 release. Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.’s LGF The Age of Adaline, which finished in the second place last weekend, earned just $6.3 million.
Moreover, with over $630 million in total box office collections in just 14 days, the movie is now on its way to breach the $1 billion mark when it opens in China on May 12. China, of late, has become one of the biggest markets for Hollywood’s action movies. Recently, Comcast Corp.’s CMCSA Furious 7, released in April, became the first movie of 2015 to gross over $1 billion at the global box office — and in just 17 days.
Notably, Avengers 2 also has the second biggest opening day with a collection of $84.4 million, a notch below the record $91 million set by Warner Bros’ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2, released in 2011. The Avengers had grossed $80.8 million on the opening day.
Disney-Marvel is unlikely to rue over the Avengers 2 ‘miss’ at the box office. The studio currently occupies all the top three biggest openings. The third place is occupied by Iron Man 3 released in 2013, which grossed over $174 million.
The potential usurper is the highly anticipated release of the year, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, another Disney offering. The Force Awakens is the first movie of the incredibly popular Star Wars franchise in a decade, which explains the frenzy among fans and distributors alike. As a result, Disney is leaving no stone unturned to generate huge publicity in order to ensure a blockbuster opening for Star Wars when it releases on Dec 18, 2015.
Disney’s other releases for the year includes Marvel’s Ant-Man and Pixar’s Inside Out. Given the runaway success of Marvel studios these days and the fact that Pixar has hardly let down Disney, both are likely to deliver at the box office.
The media giant was scheduled to report its second-quarter fiscal 2015 earnings on May 5, after markets closed. However, the sudden death of David Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey and husband of Disney board member Sheryl Sandberg, the company will report earnings before the market opens at 8.00 AM EDT, to allow people to attend the funeral.
At present, Disney carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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