Age of Ultron earned $191.2 million at the box office in its first three days – up from the studio estimate of $187.7 million that we reported last weekend. The adjustment didn't mean much in terms of besting its predecessor’s all-time opening record of $207.4 million, but every little bit counts. Through its first full week of domestic release, Age of Ultron earned $235.6 million. That stands as the third best seven-day start in box office history, behind only Marvel’s The Avengers ($270) and The Dark Knight ($238.6). Ultron earned an estimated $21.3 million on its second Friday, for a drop of 75% over its $84.4 million opening day. That’s a bigger Friday-to-Friday decline than any previous Marvel Cinematic Universe release.

In 2012, The Avengers was off by 63.8% while Iron Man 3 dropped 71.4% on its second Friday. Among Marvel titles, the best second-Friday hold belongs to the original Iron Man with -57.8%. Then again, The Dark Knight Rises dropped 76.6% on its second Friday and wound up with a higher domestic total than any Marvel feature – outside of The Avengers, of course. For its sophomore frame, Age of Ultron is expected to earn another $77 million – approximately six times more than its closest competitor: Hot Pursuit. To be clear, Hot Pursuit is competition for Age of Ultron in the same way that Megan Fox is competition for Meryl Streep. The PG-13 comedy starring Reese Witherspoon and Sophia Vergara has been savaged by critics, scoring 6% on Rotten Tomatoes just like Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 before it.

hot-pursuit-sofia-vergara-reese-witherspoon

Hot Pursuit earned an estimated $4.2 million on Friday from 3,003 locations. That puts the comedy on track for close to $13 million through Sunday. Considering that this is a summer release starring two likable stars (think 2013’s The Heat), that’s pretty dismal. Hot Pursuit was originally expected to open between $20 and $25 million, though that was before the reviews started rolling in. Even the notoriously forgiving CinemaScore audiences haven’t warmed to Hot Pursuit, giving the film a C+ rating.


Here’s Friday’s top five chart. We’ll have full details on the weekend box office tomorrow.

 Title

Friday

Total

1.

 Avengers: Age of Ultron

$21,340,000

$256.9

2.

 Hot Pursuit

$4,200,000

$4.2

3.

 The Age of Adaline

$1,530,000

$27.4

4.

 Furious 7

$1,400,000

$334.5

5.

 Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2

$1,225,000

$54.1