NORTH AMERICA: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Passes The $50M Mark After Moving Into First On Monday With $5.33M; ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ Zooms Past $70M After $5.21M Second Place Daily Take

Warner’s Mad Max: Fury Road took first place at the daily box office for the first time on Monday with $5.33 million. The critically acclaimed action film starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron held up very nicely on Monday, as the film was down just 58 percent from Sunday. Strong word of mouth, skewing heavily to adult moviegoers and the Victoria Day holiday in Canada all helped out Mad Max: Fury Road on Monday. Mad Max: Fury Road surpassed the $50 million mark yesterday and has grossed a very solid $50.76 million in four days. That is in line with expectations and places the film 10 percent behind the $56.25 million four-day start of 2012’s Prometheus (which fell 62 percent on its first Monday to gross $5.20 million).

Universal’s Pitch Perfect 2 placed in a close second on Monday with $5.21 million. The highly anticipated musical comedy sequel starring Anna Kendrick fell 68 percent from Sunday’s performance. With Pitch Perfect 2 skewing heavily towards younger moviegoers, the film should remain more of a weekend film until schools are out of session for the summer. Pitch Perfect 2 surpassed the $70 million mark yesterday and has grossed $74.43 million in four days. The film continues to exceed its already lofty pre-release expectations in a big way and is currently running a very impressive 39 percent ahead of the $53.48 million four-day take of last year’s Neighbors (which fell 62 percent on its first Monday to gross $4.44 million).

Avengers: Age of Ultron claimed third place with $3.44 million. The blockbuster superhero sequel from Disney and Marvel fell 70.5 percent from Sunday and 36 percent from last Monday. Avengers: Age of Ultron is the highest grossing release of 2015 to date domestically with an 18-day take of $375.47 million. The film is currently running 19 percent behind the $463.35 million 18-day take of 2012’s Marvel’s The Avengers and 10 percent ahead of the $340.87 million 18-day gross of 2013’s Iron Man 3.

Warner’s Hot Pursuit took fourth place with $0.481 million. The comedy from MGM and New Line starring Reese Witherspoon and Sofía Vergara was down 68.5 percent from Sunday and down 50 percent from last Monday. Hot Pursuit has clearly taken a direct hit from Pitch Perfect 2 this week and has grossed a softer than expected $23.93 million in eleven days. That places the film 8 percent behind the $26.10 million eleven-day take of 2011’s Something Borrowed.