It had to go against the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather, the “Fight of the century”, a major event all over the planet that generated over $400 million of pay-per-view sales. In the U.S. it also had to compete with the NHL and NBA playoffs, and with the Kentucky Derby. There were several major distractions, but not enough to prevent Walt Disney’s Avengers: Age of Ultron from an astonishing domestic debut of almost $190 million. That’s the second best bow of all times, just behind The Avengers record of $207 million and above Iron Man 3 at $174 million. 56 of those millions came from Real 3D auditoriums, $18 million from Imax theaters. The film played 59% male, and 60% 25 and up.
 
In its second weekend Ultron added 44 offshore markets, debuting everywhere at number one and adding $168 million. After 12 days, it had a worldwide cume of $626.7 million, with $55 million coming from Korea, 48 from Brazil, 27 from Russia and Mexico, 23 from France and Australia, 20 from Germany, 15 from Italy and so on. Starring Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Chris Evans as Captain America, Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow and also Don Cheadle, Paul Bettany and Jeremy Renner, Ultron heads to China on May 12, where it seems on track to obliterate the $86 million haul of Avengers. With numbers like these, there was not much left for anyone else. Not even for Furious 7, which fell 65% at $6.1 million in the domestic market and ended up in third place, behind the Blake Lively starring The Age of Adaline, which earned $6.25 million. But F7 has reached $330 million domestic and still has lot of gas overseas, where it added $52 million. It means it has now earned an unbelievable $1.4 billion worldwide, becoming the fourth-biggest grosser of all times behind The Avengers ($1.5b), Titanic ($2b), and Avatar ($2.7b).
$31 million came from China alone, even if Furious had to compete with three local films, Silent Separation, Helios and The Left Ear which generated over $60 million combined. The 7th installment in the car culture franchise is dedicated to the late Paul Walker and has also become the biggest grosser ever in China, with a total so far of $381.8M. Furious is also the highest grosser in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam South Africa, the UAE, Trinidad, Vietnam, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador. Meantime another Disney film, Cinderella, continues its steady march overseas by taking another $7 million and by reaching the
$500 million target. DreamWorks Animation’s Home added  $17million, for an international cume of $170 million.
 
Back to the domestic market, Paul Blart: Mail Cop 2 added $ 5.5 million for a total take of over $50 million. In 5th and 6th place we find Home and Cinderella, followed  by Ex Machina which earned $2.2 million for a new domestic total of $10.6 million. In limited debuts, Kristen Wiig’s Welcome to Me earned $38,000.00 on two screens. Far From the Madding Crowd made $172,000.00 in 10 theaters.
 
Next weekend we will witness the debut of two comedies, Hot Pursuit starring Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara, and The D Train, with Jack Black, Kathryn Hahn and James Marsden. But the consensus is that it will be The Age of Ultron for a while, until the arrival of the much anticipated Mad Max: Fury Road, starring Tom Hardy in the title role that made Mel Gibson an international star, and Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa.
Lorenzo Soria