AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON Throws Down Gauntlet, But Original Holds Box Office Opening Title
Ultron opened to $187.7 million in North America, shy of the original's $207.4 million). Yes, the original had the uniqueness of being the first to show off all these heroes on the same screen, but I think even more importantly the villain was well known and adored. Loki. Ultron, while a fairly cool concept was not up to the Loki standard in my opinion. More on that this week.
Internationally Ultron is cleaning up! It's raked in $439 million and it hasn't even opened in China yet, the world's second largest (and soon to be largest) market. Japan's opening is coming up as well.
In total AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON has amassed a staggering $626.7 million already. One would think it has a lock on the yearly box office crown - but not so fast, or should I say fast and furious - FURIOUS 7 has hit $1.43 billion worldwide. I don't think it will have a problem surmounting that figure and perhaps hitting $1.5 or $1.6 billion worldwide, overtaking the original AVENGERS - good enough for third place behind the rare air of James Cameron's space: TITANIC and AVATAR. But we'll see. China will play a huge role in this.
One more movie to throw into the yearly competition is of course STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS. That movie is just plain scary when it comes to projecting box office. It could be up in the top 2 of all time.