Unsurprisingly, George Miller’s action spectacular drew most of its money from males, which made up 70% of the reported total audience. High-octane trailers and shockingly good reviews helped to bring in many that didn’t know of Miller’s 80s franchise. With 54% of the crowd also above the age of 35 and strong critical (and fan) reception, this could be the rare summer sequel to have legs at the box office. A B+ CinemaScore indicates the film is going over better with critics than general audiences, but the strong buzz should keep Fury Road a major player through the next month.
Close behind in third place was Avengers: Age of Ultron, which brought in an estimated $38.8 million. While that was a 50% drop from its performance last weekend, given that two new competitors grossed a total of nearly $115 million between them, the result could have been much worse.
To the surprise of nobody, the film is already the biggest grosser of the year in North America. With $372 million after 17 days, the 3D superhero adventure is still running 10% ahead of Iron Man 3 but a sizable 19% behind the stellar run of its predecessor. Still, holding off two big openers hints that the film could have good staying power over the next two weekends, when competition should not be as tough. A result of $450 million or more is still likely, but not guaranteed.
Far below in fourth place was Hot Pursuit, which suffered a massive 59% decline to earn $5.8 million in its second weekend. With female audiences shifting their attention to Pitch Perfect 2, lackluster word-of-mouth and the lack of a Mother’s Day holiday, a hard drop was expected. Don’t expect the film to reach the final gross of Reese Witherspoon’s 2014 indie hit Wild ($37.9 million).
In its seventh lap, Furious 7 finished in the top five once again. With a reported $3.648 million (mildly ahead of Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2), the sequel lost just 33% of its audience, despite two mighty new competitors. A trip over the $350 million mark now seems assured. Worldwide, the film has grossed close to $1.5 billion and will likely surpass The Avengers to take third place on the all-time chart.
Here are the numbers for the Top 10 films at the North American box office for the weekend of May 15 through 17, 2015:
1. Pitch Perfect 2 – $70.3 million (NEW)
2. Mad Max: Fury Road – $44.4 million (NEW)
3. Avengers: Age of Ultron – $38.8 million ($372 million total)
4. Hot Pursuit – $5.8 million ($23.5 million total)
5. Furious 7 – $3.6 million ($343.8 million total)
6. Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 – $3.6 million ($62.9 million total)
7. The Age of Adaline – $3.2 million ($37.1 million total)
8. Home – $2.7 million ($165.7 million total)
9. Ex Machina – $2.1 million ($19.6 million total)
10. Far From the Madding Crowd – $1.3 million ($2.6 million total)
NOTE: These numbers are weekend estimates based on Friday and Saturday’s estimated takes. Actual numbers for the three-day weekend are reported on Monday afternoon.