How to Be a Latin Lover

Weekend Box Office: How to Be a Sleeper Hit

While Vin Diesel and company topped the charts for the third consecutive week, two new movies – one of which didn’t even rate a mention in Friday’s Weekend Movies post – are getting the most attention in terms of box office news.

Let’s start with the top of the chart. ‘The Fate of the Furious‘ is now Universal’s fifth movie to cross the worldwide $1 billion mark, thanks to another $19.3 million earned in the U.S. and $68.4 million earned internationally this weekend. The film’s domestic total now resides at $192.7 million and its foreign total is up to $867.6 million. Personally, I was hoping the franchise turnout overseas would start to mirror what’s happening domestically, where it’s losing steam. For me, this series has run its course and deserves to ride off into the sunset. However, with foreign ticket sales on the rise with each installment, there’s no way Universal will put its billion-dollar baby down right now.

The weekend’s biggest surprise was Ken Marino’s ‘How to Be a Latin Lover‘. Although the comedy’s release was limited to 1,118 screens, it made $12 million and finished in second place. The performance of this small picture is exceptional. While its supporting cast is pretty well-known (Kristen Bell, Michael Cera, Rob Lowe, Rob Corddry and more), Mexican lead actor Eugenio Derbez is nearly unknown in the United States. It’ll be interesting to see if the film can stack up to the success Derbez’s $100+ million ‘Instructions Not Included’.

If that wasn’t enough for you, an off-the-radar film from India also made a splash and ended up in third place. From 425 screens, ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion‘ grossed $10.1 million. Its per-screen average of $23,855 was easily the highest on the weekend charts. Making that total even more impressive is the fact that the film features a nearly three-hour runtime, meaning that the number of showings per day was less than the norm.

Had the Tom Hanks/Emma Watson thriller ‘The Circle‘ performed as predicted, it might have landed in the #2 spot. Instead, after failing to appeal to moviegoers, it wound up in fourth place with $9.3 million. Having yet to open overseas, the $18 million picture still has a good chance of turning a profit as it rolls out internationally.

Now wrapping up its fifth week, ‘The Boss Baby‘ rounded out the Top 5 with $9 million. With a domestic cumulative gross of $148.4 million plus $248.1 million from international showings, the animated comedy’s worldwide total is nearly up to $400 million.

Jason Blum’s latest picture, ‘Sleight‘, landed outside the Top 10, but had a great limited opening. It made $1.6 million from 565 locations. While the $2,991 per-screen average isn’t great, when you consider that the film came with a $250,000 micro-budget, this is a great success. After one small weekend, it has already made back six times its budget. We’ll see if the movie has more tricks up its sleeves in the weeks to follow.

Top 10:

1. ‘The Fate of the Furious’ (Universal) – $19,389,780

2. ‘How to Be a Latin Lover’ (Lionsgate) – $12,018,500

3. ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ (Great India) – $10,138,189

4. ‘The Circle’ (STX) – $9,320,000

5. ‘The Boss Baby’ (Fox) – $9,050,000

6. ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (Buena Vista) – $6,400,000

7. ‘Going in Style’ (Warner Bros.) – $3,580,000

8. ‘Smurfs: The Lost Village’ (Sony) – $3,315,000

9. ‘Gifted’ (Fox Searchlight) – $3,300,000

10. ‘Unforgettable’ (Warner Bros.) – $2,345,000

6 comments

  1. Bolo

    This week in Japan is “golden week”. That’s the week in which the highest concentration of national holidays occurs. Whatever movie opens during this week will see huge attendance. F&F 8 (titled ‘Wild Ride: Ice Break’ in Japan) nabbed a release date in Japan right at the beginning of golden week, which guarantees it will be among the highest-grossing foreign films of the year.

    • I love hearing about the weird titles that some American movies are given in foreign release. ‘Wild Ride: Ice Break’ sounds like a theme park attraction, perhaps a rollercoaster or log flume.

      • EM

        I’ve always been partial to the poetic bent of Jaws in French: les Dents de la mer, “The Teeth of the Sea”. Ah, how lovely.

        On the other hand, for the first sequel, if you add 2deux (as in Hot Shots! Part Deux)—the title tends toward the scatologically bizarre, since the sequence “mer deux” sounds like…um, crap. “The Teeth of Crap”. The film has sometimes been marketed as les Dents de la mer, 2e partie to alleviate the problem.

        • Csm101

          Since you mention Jaws, in Spanish we refer to it as El Tiburon Sangriento. The Bloody Shark. I always thought that had a nice ring.

      • ‘Maman, j’ai raté l’avion’ or ‘Mommy, I missed the plane’ for ‘Home Alone’ in France. Yes. No kidding.
        And, of course, ‘Maman, j’ai encore raté l’avion’ (‘Mommy, I missed the plane again’) for ‘Home Alone 2’.

        Nowadays, France has figured out that most people at least understand a degree of English, so the original titles are kept. Or not. They like to use easier, simpler English. ‘The Hangover’ – not a word every foreigner understands – has thus become ‘Very Bad Trip’ in France. ‘Knight and Day’ was too punny for French audiences, and became ‘Night and Day’.

        In Belgium, however, we are lucky, and we just get the American titles (with very few exceptions, e.g. Moana vs. Vaiana)

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