Weekend Box Office: One Last Ride… Again

Nicholas Sparks didn’t stand a chance against the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise, the latest entry of which is now racing toward a spot in the Top 5 highest-grossing movies of all time.

Yes, ‘Furious 7‘ had another very strong weekend here in the United States. Even after dropping nearly 59% in attendance (which is a few percentage points stronger than the last two franchise entries), the sequel’s momentum pushed it to another $60.5 million haul. After ten days, the action flick has earned a whopping $252.5 million domestically. At this rate, it’s very likely that it will cross the $350 million domestic mark.

Overseas, ‘Furious 7’ held up even better by becoming China’s highest-grossing single-day release of all time with $68.6 million. To date, the film has pulled in $548 million internationally and $800.5 million worldwide, and it still hasn’t even opened in markets like Japan yet. Playing this well around the entire globe, ‘Furious 7′ is eyeballing a $1.3 billion worldwide run. If it can hit that target, it will become fifth-highest grossing movie of all time – and that feat will be without the help of 3D ticket sales.

DreamWorks’ ‘Home‘ remained in the #2 spot. Its second week drop-off wasn’t very good, but the third week held on much better. The 29% slip resulted in $19 million and a 17-day total of $129.5 million.

Without any noteworthy stars, the latest Nicholas Sparks adaptation had a mild debut. The overlong romantic drama ‘The Longest Ride‘ opened in third place with $13.5 million. As Sparks’ tenth book to be turned into a movie, the opening ranks sixth-best.

Likewise, the Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart comedy ‘Get Hard‘ had a much softer drop-off on its third week than its second. The 34% decline resulted in $8.6 million, pushing its 17-day total up to $71.2 million.

Rounding out the Top 5 was ‘Cinderella‘, which just won’t go away. The live-action fairy tale dipped 29% and added $7.2 million to its $180.7 million domestic run.

Expanded titles ‘Woman in Gold’, ‘Danny Collins’ and ‘While We’re Young’ all benefited from their screen-count boosts. ‘Woman in Gold‘ climbed up to 1,504 screens and remained in the #7 spot with $5.8 million. After ten days, it has grossed $9.3 million. ‘Danny Collins‘ went up to 739 screens and finished in ninth place with $1.6 million. After 17 days, it sits at $2.4 million. Rising to 246 screens, ‘While We’re Young‘ nabbed $1.3 million, making it the best weekend ever for a Noah Baumbach movie.

Alex Garland’s directorial debut scored the highest per-screen average opening of the year (so far). From just four locations, ‘Ex Machina‘ earned $250,000. While already planned to expand wide over the next two week, the $62,500 per-screen average ought to push distributor A24 to expand it out onto even more screens.

The Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart indie drama ‘Clouds of Sils Maria‘ had a nice three-location opening that resulted in $70,000 and a $23,333 per-screen average. There’s no word yet on the status of its platform release.

Weekend totals have yet to be announced for Simon Pegg’s ‘Kill Me Three Times’ or the Ryan Gosling-directed ‘Lost River’.

Top 10:

1. ‘Furious 7’ (Universal) – $60,591,000

2. ‘Home’ (Fox) – $19,000,000

3. ‘The Longest Ride’ (Fox) – $13,500,000

4. ‘Get Hard’ (Warner Bros.) – $8,635,000

5. ‘Cinderella’ (Buena Vista) – $7,225,000

6. ‘Insurgent’ (Lionsgate) – $6,850,000

7. ‘Woman in Gold’ (Weinstein) – $5,852,000

8. ‘It Follows’ (Radius) – $2,027,000

9. ‘Danny Collins’ (Bleecker) – $1,600,000

10. ‘While We’re Young’ (A24) – $1,377,000

1 comment

  1. Elizabeth

    Fast & Furious is playing in 3D overseas so it’s not accurate to claim its reached that worldwide total without 3D ticket sales. I’m hoping the Zavvi steelbook includes the 3D version.

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