(UPDATE) 'Tomorrowland' & 'Pitch Perfect 2' in (Not-Really) Dead Heat B.O. Shocker

Age of Ultron to pass $400 million domestically. Note: this is an update to our Saturday story.

Story by Matt Cummings

No matter how you slice it, this weekend's box office race was more of a dud than an amazing stratospheric accomplishment, with Tomorrowland winning, Pitch Perfect 2 at #2, and Age of Ultron set to cross $400 million domestically. So, why all then negative feelings?

First the numbers: with the three-day weekend officially in the books, Tomorrowland took in paltry $32.9m/$41m while owning most of the IMAX screens, which was slightly higher than its projections. It eeked out a win against Pitch Perfect 2, which crossed the $100m mark on Saturday, all but guaranteeing a sequel (oh, no please don't) with $38.5m. George Miller's dystopian spectacle Mad Max: Fury Road, took in a higher number as well, gassing up to $32.1m 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 took home $22.6m for the three-day weekend and should disappear next 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. Add in Avengers: Age of Ultron actually finishing #4 on the three-day numbers (with it crossing $410m domestically), I think we can call it dead for next weekend.

With all this news Which begs the question: why are we so down on these numbers? Simple: Memorial Day Weekend 2015 ranks only the 12th highest since they started keeping track, with only 2010's malaise of Sex and the City and Prince of Persia fairing worse. Last year ranked as one of the highest, with X-Men: Days of Future Past hauling in $90.8m/$110.6m. That almost eclipses this year's top five combined numbers. Yikes.

To put it simply, Disney totally ignored the ingredients for a successful weekend: give audiences the big tentpole sequels and stick far away from introducing anything new. All the signs for failure were there: a Super Bowl spot, seven minutes ahead of Age of Ultron, a Disneyland world premiere, etc etc. Disney also failed to attract the right audience: people I've spoken with about their interest in the film weren't sure if it was for geeks, families, nerds, young or old. That combined with less-than-stellar reviews (we discussed this on our podcast) kept a lot of people away. In trying to appeal to everyone, it left its core audience on the bench. Fail.

This year's promise of a record-setting box office is slowly forcing its expectations to later films, forcing them to pick up the pace. When even an Age of Ultron can't surpass its brethren, and reports revealing Jurassic World as the only guaranteed $100m opening this summer, things are beginning to look grim. Tomorrowland and the Memorial weekend numbers only put a cherry on top of that sundae.

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