Movies

Box Office Recap: ‘Avengers’ Outscores Newcomer ‘Hot Pursuit’

May 10, 2015

Avengers: Age of Ultron reigns once more at the box office, besting Hot Pursuit with an additional $77.2 million in its sophomore weekend from 4,276 locations.

Marvel/Disney’s comic book adventure, directed by Joss Whedon, has accumulated $312.9 million domestically and $875.3 million globally since debuting last week. It now ranks as the second-fastest film to surpass $300 million domestically, with expectations of becoming the second 2015 release to surpass $1 billion globally, behind Furious 7.

“It’s a dominant force,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak. “These second weekend numbers would be a great opening weekend debut for a lot of films.”

The weekend’s newcomer, director Anne Flether’s Hot Pursuit, managed to land in second place with a disappointing $13.3 million from 3,004 theaters. The film, starring Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara, attracted an audience that was 62 percent female and 82 percent over the age of 25.

“Given our expectations it was a little lighter than we had hoped for,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. distribution executive vice president.

Earning a C plus CinemaScore and a 7 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating from critics, Hot Pursuit is about an inept police officer (Witherspoon) trying to protect a drug dealer’s widow (Vergara) from criminals and corrupt cops.

Securing the third spot on the charts is Lionsgate’s romantic fantasy, The Age of Adaline, dropping 10 percent with $5.6 million and gathering a cumulative total of $31.5 million domestically.

Following in fourth and fifth place is Universal’s Furious 7 and Sony’s Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, earning $5.2 million and $5.19 million, respectively. The action sequel has accumulated $338.4 million domestically and $1.5 billion globally, while the latter comedy flick rounded out to $58.1 million domestically.

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