That deep gasping sound accompanied by the cascade of clicking, zipping, snapping and folding of purses and wallets you heard this weeked was America generally staying home from the theater, saving their money for the box office summer blockbuster bonanza that Avengers 2 is set to kick off next weekend.
With no new competition to speak of Furious 7 remained at the front of the pack for a fourth weekend in a row, followed by Mall Cop 2. The only newcomer to hit the top ten was The Age of Adaline with its modest $13 million third place debut.
Furious 7 has done incredibly well domestically, moving towards the $350 million mark and eclipsing anything else so far this year and, at this rate, anything last year. But that success is likely to get trampled quickly with the arrival of Avengers 2.
Following success in very limited release for the last two weekends Ex Machina finally got the chance to test its mettle with a larger audience. The moderate response handed the movie less than $4,500 per screen (only slightly better than the 2 week-old Paul Blart sequel). Despite some of the highest praise of the year from critics, Ex Machina is set to disappear quickly next weekend under the weight of more popular and vastly better marketed artificial intelligence villains in Avengers 2.
If you were keeping score, Avengers 2 was mentioned more times that any current movies in this weekend's report despite the fact that it hasn't even hit theaters yet. The last time there was a major record breaking opening weekend was 2012 when The Avengers shattered the previous record by $38 million. That was not only the highest ever jump, it was the highest percentage jump since opening weekends started hitting triple digit millions. No other movie has ever had a hope of coming close to that record until now. The question is whether or not Age of Ultron has what it takes to draw in the audiences and best its predecessor.
For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below:
Furious 7
$18,259,000Total: $320,536,000LW: 1
THTRS: 3,808
| 2. | Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 | $15,500,000 | Total: $43,950,000 | LW: 2 THTRS: 3,633 |
The Age of Adaline *
$13,375,000Total: $13,375,000LW: N
THTRS: 2,991
Home (2015)
$8,300,000Total: $153,784,000LW: 4
THTRS: 3,311
Unfriended
$6,244,000Total: $25,158,000LW: 3
THTRS: 2,775
Ex Machina
$5,441,000Total: $6,920,000LW: 15
THTRS: 1,255
The Longest Ride
$4,365,000Total: $30,398,000LW: 5
THTRS: 3,140
Get Hard
$3,905,000Total: $84,066,000LW: 6
THTRS: 2,276
| 9. | Monkey Kingdom | $3,551,000 | Total: $10,258,000 | LW: 8 THTRS: 2,012 |
| 10. | Woman in Gold | $3,501,000 | Total: $21,635,000 | LW: 7 THTRS: 1,981 |
