'Tomorrowland' & 'Pitch Perfect 2' in Dead Heat B.O. Shocker

Age of Ultron set to pass $400 million domestically.

Story by Matt Cummings

No matter how you slice it, this weekend's box office race is gearing up to be a close one, with Tomorrowland and Pitch Perfect 2 in a close race for #1.

With the three-day weekend officially casting off on Friday, Tomorrowland took in approximately $10.4 million, owning most of the IMAX screens - it should take in an estimated $33-35m for the weekend. However, that might not be enough to win it the top spot: that one might go to Pitch Perfect 2. On Friday, the comedy-melody mashup took in approximately $10m, which should plpay out to a 3-day tally of $33-34m. It will also pass the $100m mark on Saturday, after only dropping 52% weekend-to-weekend.

Coming in at number three is the George Miller dystopian spectacle Mad Max: Fury Road, dropping only 39%, which should see profit between $26-28m for the weekend. Those numbers are impressive, considering the relatively small potential audience; numbers like that mean that not only are fans returning to see it again (and you should see it if you haven't), while bringing their curious friends along who might not know how about the 30+-year franchise. Road's success does prove that sites like CinemaScore and their disappointing B+ rating might not matter to moviegoers.

Depending on how you look at it, number four's Poltergeist is either a disappointing flop or a surprise entry. The reboot of the 1982 classic will take home between $23.9-26.6m for the three-day weekend. It didn't get a great review from us, with Metacritic's combined score of 47. Horror films like these tend to fall off dramatically in their second weekends, so MGM/Fox should be happy to run off with this much B.O. money before it disappears.

Another bit of interesting news lies at #5's Avengers Age of ultron. The follow-up to the massive 2012 has not been as massive, although it will pass the $400m mark by Sunday with a $20-22m, 3-day weekend performance. Considering that 2012's Avengers finished with over $600m domestically, Ultron won't even come close to that before it exits theaters; that has to be a disappointment to Marvel and Director Joss Whedon, who had hoped to outgain the original. That clearly is not going to happen.

We'll be back to repost this story with updates and give our thoughts on the weekend's big winner, so stay tuned.

Discuss this story with fellow SJF fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @SandwichJohnFilms, and follow author Matt Cummings at @mfc90125.