By Chris Kavan - 05/07/15 at 07:46 AM CT
The final tally for The Avengers: Age of Ultron turned out to be even better than first reported - over $191 million. The next test for the monster movie will be how much of its audience it will be able to retain in its second weekend out. Although it will be facing competition from two comedies (targeting two very specific audiences) I see little reason Ultron should be worried. It will be number one, of that I have no doubt, but it will be interesting to see if it can hold on to a decent chunk of its core audience.
HOT PURSUIT The buddy comedy is nothing new to the world of movies - and it seems it's not going anywhere anytime soon either. This iteration pairs up an uptight cop with an the outgoing widow of a mob boss. Reece Witherspoon and Sofía Vergara are the unlikely pair this time around. From what I've seen, this pretty much follows the standard protocol for this kind of film - the two are on the run from the mob and dirty cops and get into all kinds of mishaps and trouble as they race across Texas. Just because it's by-the-books doesn't mean it won't find an audience. Women will support good comedies (Bridesmaids) but I have a feeling this just isn't original enough to warrant that good of result. Considering Age of Adeline is the only new female-centric film in theaters, this should do OK based on the fact it really has no other competition. That should be good enough for an average return, but probably not much else.
THE D TRAIN Originally released at the Sundance Film Festival in January, The D Train is getting a nationwide push this weekend. Jack Black plays the former nobody at his high school now in charge of the class reunion. In order to, for once, appear cool, he plans to track down Oliver Lawless (James Marsden) the coolest guy in his class, who has moved to L.A. where he is now part of a successful Banana Boat campaign. But he gets much more than he bargained for when Lawless essentially takes over his life. From mid-life crisis to madness - it looks like this comedy goes a bit deeper than one would expect on the surface. Still, it's only opening to just above 700 theaters (barely enough for a nationwide push) and it will have a more niche appeal, so I'm not expecting too much out of this - though I would watch this in a heartbeat over Hot Pursuit given the option. It will most likely crack the top 10, but most likely on the low end.
The weekend may be serving up a couple of new comedies, but, once again, it will be The Avengers on top and, I expect, by a wide margin. I'll be back on Sunday with the results.
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