‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ Heads for $195 Million Opening in U.S.

Dave McNary

Disney and Marvel Studio’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is headed for a projected $195 million U.S. opening weekend — a formidable figure but not enough to match the $207.4 million opening weekend record for 2012’s “The Avengers.”

Saturday’s total appeared to be in the $57 million to $60 million range — slightly below earlier expectations, which gave “Ultron” a decent chance at matching the record following an impressive $84. 6 million opening day on Friday.

But strong competition from Saturday night’s Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight appears to have kept away enough movie customers to preclude a new record.

The Sunday forecast calls for $50 million to $53 million, which will leave “Ultron” short of the $200 million mark — but well above the $174.1 million launch weekend for Marvel’s “Iron Man 3″ in 2013.

The international total had hit $340 million on Friday in the wake of launching in 55% of the overseas markets last weekend. The tentpole took in $53 million on Friday.

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