'Mad Max,' 'Pitch Perfect' To Unseat 'Ultron' This Weekend

Read on to learn why this weekend isn't all bad for Marvel.

Story by Matt Cummings

With Avengers: Age of Ultron passing $1 billion internationally this week, the film has been a massive success, and should eclipse Furious 7 as the top domestic film of 2015 by the end of this weekend. Still, the latest superhero team-up hasn't fared nearly as well as its 2012 predecessor: as of this posting (10 days since its North American release), it's off nearly $70 million. That's a lot, and it's soon about to be deposed from its two-week throne as Universal’s sequel Pitch Perfect 2 and Warner Brothers' Mad Max: Fury Road arrive.

Each of these releases is looking to take in as much as $50 million each, which should easily overthrow Ultron. Based on early Friday estimates from both Variety and BoxOfficeMojo, the Rebel Wilson/Anna Kendrick musical comedy is drawing solid numbers, with a very good $20-$22m, which could see it finish the weekend between $48-$52m. But the vehicular madness that is Fury Road isn't far behind, crashing through with $20m on its way to another $50m opening weekend.

Not to be forgotten, Ultron will draw a solid third place with another haul of $35-$38m. Should these numbers pan out, it would be the first time since the final week of December 2014 that three films finished over $30m each. At that time, The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies ($40.9m), Into the Woods ($31.1m), and Unbroken ($30.6m) all ended up with very good weekends, proving that 13 films in one month wasn't too much to discourage holiday audiences.

Depending on how you look at the projections for this weekend, it wouldn't be too much to consider Ultron a disappointment. The trouble started with its opening weekend, which saw a major boxing match sucking its Saturday dry of a record. That, and the less than stellar praise by critics, edged its totals downwards. But with audiences still packing in to see it, Marvel can count this one as a success, and proof that audiences still haven't gotten their fill of superhero epics.

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