There was a lot of speculation that Tomorrowland could be the next Harry Potter movie, but as it turns out the audience wasn't that interested in the scientific fantasy film starring George Clooney after all – Tomorrowland opened to a mediocre $59 million dollars in the box office worldwide.
Disney had high hopes for the movie, but with such a disappointing start, the movie will probably only make a little profit above its $200 million + production and marketing cost, and will get nowhere near to the $1 billion mark that for example Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron passed a week ago.
Tomorrowland performed badly even though there was no major new competition at the theatres this weekend, since the only other notable movie that premiered was the supernatural horror film Poltergeist, which obviously targeted a somewhat different audience.
Poltergeist is the reboot of the 1982 Steven Spielberg's film, which is a story about a family whose house is haunted by evil forces and who must come together and face this evil to rescue their daughter after the apparitions take her captive. The movie actually performed really well compared to expectations and finished with $28 million after its first four days in the United States.
Pitch Perfect 2 and Mad Max: Fury Road both raced for the 2nd spot last weekend, and though the former came out on top in the United States, Mad Max performed better worldwide.
The post-apocalyptic action movie is now above $200 million in total, and considering it only dropped 47%, compared to Pitch Perfect 2's 56% after its first week, it is bound to end up at around $500 million.
Meanwhile Avengers: Age of Ultron continues to perform outstandingly. It has crossed the $400 million mark in the United States (the first movie to do so in 2015), the $200 million mark in China and globally it has grossed over $1.2 billion. At this rate, the film should surpass the $1.5 billion mark in the next couple of weeks to bring it up to #3 position on the All Time Box Office list.