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Monday Mixer: 'Suicide Squad' assembled and in costume

Posted Monday, May 4, 2015 at 1:55 PM Central
Last updated Tuesday, May 5, 2015 at 9:30 AM Central

by John Couture

May the Fourth. Star Wars day.

It would be silly for us not to even mention the significance of today's made up holiday, but we are in the movie industry, so it would be sacrilege not to. Actually, we are going a step further and donating an entire story for the occasion, but more to come on that later. There's just too much news on both fronts to try and cram it all into one piece.

Speaking of this weekend, there were quite a few talking points to take away from it, not the least being the "failure" of Avengers: Age of Ultron. I still don't get how you could even remotely call this movie a "failure," but some people are doing just that. OK, "failure" is perhaps a bit much, but it does make you wonder.

Have we placed unfair expectations on these movies, and Summer 2015 in general? That seems like a discussion for another day perhaps, but for now, we have plenty to mull over about this weekend's sequence of events, so we might as well get it, no?

Box Office 411

Let me preface the following by saying upfront that, in my book, there's no way that you can call a $188 million opening anything less than spectacular. And yet, I was shocked that the film opened up at less than $200 million. Avengers: Age of Ultron's opening is good enough for the second best opening ever. It just happens to be about $20 million less than its predecessor.

Why didn't it perform up to The Avengers mark? Sequels almost always outperform their original films, don't they?

Well, yes and no.

Some have claimed that The Avengers's $207 million opening was the confluence of many unique factors that will most likely never be replicated again. This could explain why no other film has come close to breaking $200 million in opening weekend grosses in the three years since the mark was established.

I know that I and many others took it for granted that Ultron would open north of $200 million with $225 million being the number most bandied about, but it seems that Ultron faced its own perfect storm in the guise of sports this weekend. Saturday had been called by some as the greatest day in sports in quite some time with the annual running of the Kentucky Derby, a pivotal NBA playoff game seven and the "fight of the century" between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

There's been a long history between the effects of sports and the box office, just look at the receipts from Super Bowl weekend sometime. But this could be called its own "fight of the century" as this was the first time in a long time that there was a huge film opening in the face of a massive sports day. On Saturday, it would seem that sports won, but when its all said and done, I'm not too concerned about Avengers: Age of Ultron's numbers. It's setting records worldwide and even with the dip from Saturday, the film should rebound well enough to finish over $550 million, if not flirt with $600 million.

The biggest tell of its final box office number will come this weekend. Can it surpass $100 million in its second weekend, joining only its predecessor to accomplish that feat? If so, it will be a huge step towards breaking the $600 million barrier, just like The Avengers.

Furious 7 got walloped in third place with only $6.1 million. All outside chances of hitting $400 million evaporated this weekend and it will now struggle to earn that last $20 million to break $350 million. Don't look now but Cinderella jumped six spots to sixth place renewing its chances to break $200 million. I firmly believe that it was boosted by its common pairing with Avengers: Age of Ultron at drive-in theaters. A couple more weeks like this and it will finally skate past $200 million.

Quick Hitters

Mix or mix not, there is no try!