The Avengers: Age of Ultron press tour is winding down as the movie hits theaters tomorrow evening, but there are still a few Avengers out making the final push for a movie that really does not need a final push. After last week’s super peppy press tour derailment, this week has seen (mostly) better behavior from the cast. Some of them are already done—Chris Evans is officially at work on Captain America: Civil War—but Jeremy Renner stopped by Jimmy Fallon last night in his Hawkeye getup to sing a goofy song about how Hawkeye is super, too. He said a dickhead thing and gave a sh*tty non-apology, and this doesn’t make that go away, but I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Hawkeye has always been the “her?” of the Avengers, and this song nails the general attitude toward Hawkeye—what are you actually contributing, buddy?
There is no question that Avengers: Age of Ultron will be a box office beast—it’s already going gangbusters overseas. Disney is officially projecting $200 million for opening weekend, deliberately low-balling so that their inevitable victory is made especially crushing. Third party projections put it between $205-217 million, but off the record a number of analysts have told me they think it could go as high as $250 million. There’s simply no way of knowing—the only comparable movie is The Avengers, itself a record-obliterating opening. But if the Phase 2 post-Avengers bump holds up for Ultron, it will open in the neighborhood of $300 million. That’s not possible. Right?
