Weekend Box Office: 'Avengers: Age Of Ultron' Becomes Top US Grosser Of 2015

And now the holdover news!

Walt Disney's  Avengers: Age of Ultron earned another $38.84 million (-50%) in its third weekend of release. Considering the massive competition (Pitch Perfect 2 and Mad Max: Fury Road) taking away pretty much every demographic (Avengers only had to deal with, uh, Battleship in weekend three), that's a halfway decent hold. The all-star sequel has now earned $372.1m domestic, putting in the top-25 of all-time domestic grossers. It also passed Furious 7 and American Sniper to become the undisputed domestic box office champion of 2015, where it will forever remain until (maybe) Star Wars: The Force Awakens this December. It has also earned $770m overseas, relatively close to the first film's $895m overseas cume. It opened in China with $156.3m, including $17.5m in IMAX alone. That's nearly double the first film's $86.3m total in said market. It has earned $1.1142b worldwide, making it the eighth-biggest worldwide grosser ever, just behind the $1.2b cume of Iron Man 3. We'll see how it holds up as Disney somewhat shifts its focus to Tomorrowland. In other Disney news, Cinderella has earned $521m worldwide on a $95m budget, so they've got that going for them too.

Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara's Hot Pursuit ( Time Warner Inc.) dropped 59% in weekend two, which is pretty terrible for a comedy/non-sequel. Anyway, the third-best car chase movie currently in theaters earned $5.7 million to bring its cume to $23.5m. I have little desire to kick this sick puppy any further, so let's move on. The second-best car chase movie currently in theaters earned another $3.647m, dropping just 33% despite Fury Road competition and losing 766 screens over the frame. Universal/Comcast Corp.'s Furious 7 has now earned $343m domestic and $1.489b worldwide, meaning I need to prep that "Furious 7 passes Avengers" essay early next week. Sony's Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 earned another $3.6m, dropping 32% and bringing its cume to $62.9m. It's no blockbuster like the first, but it's no flop either. Lions Gate Entertainment has a little sleeper on its hands with The Age of Adaline, which has held well since opening a month ago. The Blake Lively drama earned $3.2m (-45%) this weekend bringing its cume to $37m domestic. Considering its going to outgross John Wick on a similar budget, perhaps we should start paying more attention to it.

DreamWorks Animation's Home earned another $2.7 million (-12%!!), showing real legs even in the face of kid-friendly competition like Avengers 2 and Fury Road Pitch Perfect 2. The leggy toon has now earned $165.6m domestic and (as of this writing) $341m worldwide. The leggy sci-fi wonder Ex Machina earned another $2.1m (-41%) as is started to lose screens this weekend. The A24 release, which has to settle for merely being the second-best movie of the year thus far, has earned a rock-solid $19.56m domestic. Sneaking into the top-ten is the Carey Mulligan drama Far From the Maddening Crowd. The film expanded to 289 theaters and earned $1.3m (+67%) for a new $2.63m domestic total. This is shaping up to be another solid single for Fox Searchlight and I expect it to expand somewhat wide either this weekend or next. It's a pretty solid film too, for what that's worth. Also of note, six of the top-ten films this weekend (Pitch Perfect 2, Mad Max: Fury Road, Hot Pursuit, Age of Adaline, Home, and Far From the Maddening Crowd) are arguably female-centric in nature, which is pretty amazing considering so-called conventional wisdom.

Lastly, a few other notes further down the charts. The Blythe Danner romance I'll See You In My Dreams debuted on three screens and earned $49.3k for the effort. Also of note, The Divergent Series: Insurgent earned another $390k (-50%) on 503 screens for a new $128.2m domestic cume. The (pretty darn good) Kristen Wiig comedy Welcome To Me continued to make a few bucks in theaters and in VOD, earning $95.9k in 81 theaters for a $413k domestic cume. After a full week on VOD, the film earned $510k in said on-demand outlets. Yes it's unusual for studios to release said VOD numbers, which is why I'm reporting it.  Unfriended has earned $42.7m worldwide while It Follows is wrapping up its run with $14.5m domestic. They are (by default?) the two best theatrical horror films of the year. They are both technically hits, but they both deserved better. Finally, Get Hard earned $585k for a new $88.8m domestic cume while Russell Crowe's The Water Diviner earned $265k for a new $3.72m cume.

And that's a wrap!  Join me next weekend for Walt Disney's Tomorrowland (review dropping in five hours or tomorrow morning depending on my schedule) and 20th Century Fox's Poltergeist. In the meantime, enjoy this Rentrak top-ten list: