Marvel’s long awaited blockbuster sequel, Avengers: Age of Ultron , followed up its record smashing debut weekend with a second weekend haul of $77.2 million for the U.S. and Canadian box office, landing as the second best performing sequel in box office history. The one film that did better during its second weekend is the film’s predecessor, The Avengers , which brought in a staggering $103.1 million its second weekend, according to Saba Hamedy of the L.A. Times .
Avengers: Age of Ultron , in just two weeks of release, has already amassed $312.9 million domestically and $562.4 million internationally with the film yet to open in several key markets. Ultron opens in China this week, and in Japan on July 4, assuring that Age of Ultron’s haul will easily top $1 billion.
Michael Cavna of the Washington Post reports that Avengers: Age of Ultron has already surpassed the lifetime earnings of its Marvel brethren Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Thor: The Dark World which raked in $259 million and $206 million, respectively, with its two week haul of $875 million. Cavna also points out that while Furious 7 remains the top grossing film of the year thus far, and that its $5.3 million weekend haul allowed the film to surpass Harry Potter to become the fourth highest grossing film of all time with $1.47 billion in earnings.
Avengers: Age of Ultron’s momentum seems to be gaining steam and it is quite possible that before, or shortly after, Furious 7 laps Marvel’s Iron Man 3 on the top grossing list that Ultron could well surpass that mark and reclaim three of the top five slots on the highest grossing films of all time. Certainly, with Marvel’s Phase 3 yet to take effect, including two more Avengers films, at least one more Captain America , and Spider-Man back in play, that over the next decade Marvel could lay claim to most of the top ten box office all time earners list.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is the second in a throng of eagerly-awaited tentpole blockbusters scheduled for release by comic book-turned-movie giant, Marvel . Between now and 2019, Marvel is set to release Captain America: Civil War in 2016, as well as the next two films in The Avengers series, Avengers: Infinity War – Part I in 2018 and Avengers: Infinity War – Part II in 2019. Also slated for release by Marvel in the next three years are Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Inhumans.