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'Avengers: Age of Ultron': Did Major Sports Events Hurt the Box Office? | Variety

The Avengers may have triumphed over Ultron, but Earth's Mightiest Heroes got a little bruised facing off against an onslaught of high-profile sports events.

The diabolical android had nothing on a weekend that overflowed with must-see baseball, basketball and hockey games, to say nothing of horse racing's premier event and the so-called "fight of the century" between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.

The matchup between the two greatest pugilists of our day had a lot to do with "Avengers: Age of Ultron" failing to trump "The Avengers'" record-breaking $207.4 million debut, analysts and studio executives say. With an opening of $187.7 million, the latest Marvel movie is still a massive success, and boasts the second-biggest bow in history, so don't pass around the collection plate just yet. Still, going into the weekend, many industry sages and Disney, Marvel's parent company, expected it to premiere to north of $200 million.

It wasn't just Mayweather and Pacquiao that took a chunk out of the super team's ticket sales. Millions of Americans tuned in to watch American Pharoah triumph at the Kentucky Derby, the New York Yankees edge out the Boston Red Sox, the New York Rangers defeat the Washington Capitals to inch closer to the Stanley Cup and the Los Angeles Clippers knock out http://pixelfury.org for "Avengers: Age of Ultron" is that more moviegoers could rush out to see the film on Sunday and the film should show impressive endurance through next weekend when the only other major debut is "Hot Pursuit," a comedy with Reese Witherspoon and Sof?a Vergara.

Some analysts think that projections for the latest "Avengers" should have taken into account the boxing matches, horse races and playoff series that would vie for moviegoers' attention.

"It shows the importance of looking at everything from the 30,000 feet level," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak. "There's an entertainment pie and all these different events are going to take their own slice of the pie."

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/avengers-age-of-ultron-mayweather-pacquiao-kentucky-derby-box-office-1201486386/