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Michael Lynderey: I think that even the box office that this year alone produced American Sniper, Spongebob 2, and Furious 7, has its limits. The Avengers is a beloved film that was followed up by another beloved film (Captain America: The Winter Soldier). Using the usual rules of box office, those films should have bought the sequel's early meal tickets so much so that Avengers 2 should have opened bigger. There's probably that bit of weariness with the material we're seeing, but it's not serious just yet.

Ryan Kyle: For the most part, the rule is that the sequel opens up bigger than the original so I operated my prediction under that rule. However, it seems as if the glass ceiling was reached with the original. I think for the super fans of the franchise, the okay consensus around the film's quality prevented multiple-viewings on opening weekend which cost a couple million and the Derby/Fight/NBA sports-filled Saturday might have shaved off some dollars as well, but that is just pennies in the big picture of things.

Kim Hollis: Although I predicted Age of Ultron would beat its predecessor's opening weekend, I mentioned a number of reasons for a possible decline. I do wonder how much the controversies surrounding Black Widow impacted the audience, albeit a small portion of it. Between Marvel and Disney ignoring her for the toys and so forth and Chris Evans and Jeremy Renner calling the character a slut, the backlash seems to be significant. And there are certainly plenty of people who want to tear the movie down. I think sports in no way contributed to the decrease in audience, by the way. The fight was too late, and if people wanted to get out and see the film, there was ample opportunity.

David Mumpower: Upon reflection, what I think hurts Ultron the most is the advertising campaign. I disagree about the film not having a great villain. I actually think James Spader nailed the role as much as Loki if not more. The problem is more that Disney didn't seem to know what to do with this film. The marketing is all over the place, even now. In fact, I have this criticism of all of their movies since The Avengers, even Guardians of the Galaxy, which is an unpopular opinion, I know. Captain America: Winter Soldier was an absolute masterpiece and while it almost won its year of release, I feel like a lot of money was left on the table. Conversely, Guardians was a best case box office performance (light years beyond that, really), but I still struggle to quantify why. And now we have Age of Ultron selling...what exactly? If I'm a Disney executive right now, I'm re-evaluating how we handle our advertising.

Max Braden: For me, the reason I didn't go see it was actually because I thought everyone else was going to see it. I didn't want to fight the madhouse to get a good seat on time and decided to go another day. I do think the Saturday sports had a significant effect on the numbers. The audiences may not directly overlap, but three million viewers watching the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight on Saturday night amounts to a lot of box office millions in potential revenue lost.

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