By Chris Kavan - 04/12/15 at 11:36 PM CT
After its blistering April Opening, Furious 7 showed little signs of slowing down at the box office. Even better news, the international results are on pace for Furious 7 to be one of the biggest movies world-wide of all time. Not bad for a film that mainly relies on questionable physics and fast cars as the main selling point. Otherwise, a few milestones were reached by a handful of films, some limited release films expanded to good effect and, overall, the box office is looking amazing this spring.
1) FURIOUS 7
It was pretty much a given that Furious 7 was going to repeat as the box office champion. The film dipped 59% in its second weekend - a better hold than Fast Five and 6 - which both fell by 62%. The $60.6 million it took in give is a new total of $252.5 million. That not only makes it the highest-grossing film from 2015, but also officially makes it the highest-grossing film in the Fast and Furious franchise... and in just 10 days. Given its momentum, the tally for Furious 7 should top $350 million. If that isn't enough, it also earned a monster $68.6 million opening in China (also a record) and now stands at $800 million globally and, with plenty of gas left in the tank, it's looking at a finally total north of $1.2 billion - which would make it one of the most successful films of all time. I thought the film was good myself, but this result is pretty astounding. It still has little in the way of competition for the rest of the month and it will be exciting to see just how high the film can reach.
2)
HOME
Repeating in second place as well for the weekend, the animated Home dipped just under 30% and brought in an estimated $19 million. It jumped across the $125 million mark and now stands at $129.5 million. It will certainly cross its reported $135 million budget sometime this next week and the solid hold also puts it ahead of fellow animated films The Croods and How to Train Your Dragon 2 through the same time period. Expect this to cross $150 million easily and it should top out around the $175 million mark by the end of its run.
3)
THE LONGEST RIDE
The latest adaptation from Nicholas Sparks drew in a crowd to the tune of $13.5 million. That total puts it ahead of last fall's The Best of Me ($10 million) and right in line with previous Sparks' adaptations The Notebook and Nights in Rodanthe, though well below the likes of Safe Haven’s $21.4 million. The audience, unsurprisingly, was overwhelmingly female (73%) and younger (54% under 25). They awarded it a fine "A" Cinemascore, though critics (as with many previous Sparks' vehicles) were far less kind. Still, this result was to be expected and with the female audience wrapped up it should end its run at around the $30 million mark.
4)
GET HARD
Although the comedy took a big drop in its second weekend, it fared much better in its third week out. Get Hard dipped just over 34% and took in $8.6 million to give the film a new total of $71.2 million. That is better than Hart's last film, The Wedding Ringer ($64.5 million) and the film should cross $75 million this week and should at least near the $100 million mark.
5)
CINDERELLA
The live-action Cinderella dropped a spot and shed about 29% of its audience. It took in $7.22 million and crossed the $175 million mark with a new total of $180.77 million and will shortly double its $95 million budget. Though it can no longer claim the title of the top film of 2015 - it has still had a good run. Disney has found a new goldmine - with a live action Beauty and the Beast underway, and live action versions of Pinocchio and Winnie the Pooh announced, it sounds like this particular model is going to live on well into the future.
Outside the top five: Woman in Gold expanded to over 1500 theaters and jumped nearly 180% in the process. The film held on to its seventh place position, taking in $5.8 million for a new total of $9.3 million. The film is looking at a respectable $20 million total on the horizon.
Another film seeing a major expansion was Danny Collins. The Al Pacino-led film about an aging rock star finding a letter that changes the course of his life and career added 656 theater from its limited count and jumped from 17th to 9th place (360%) for a $1.6 million take and an overall total of $2.5 million. Look for this one to top out around $6 million.
While We're Young also continued to expand well, adding 212 locations (247 total now) and breaking into the top 10 with a $1.37 million weekend and a new total of $2.35 million. It represents the best weekend yet for director Noah Baumbach and could wind up being the highest-grossing movie of his career - which now belongs to The Squid and the Whale ($7.37 million). If this continues to expand and does well enough, I don't see how it could fall short.
Finally, in limited release, the sci-fi/drama Ex Machina had the best debut of the year - earning $250,000 from just four theaters. That translates to an excellent $62,500 per-theater average - beating out the above-mentioned While We're Young for the honor, as well as being the best limited release yet for distributor A24. Again, with this kind of result, expect some expansion to come in the next few weeks.
Speaking of which, next week is a bit more crowded, though, once again, Furious 7 should prevail against the likes of comedy Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, the horror film set against the backdrop of social media, Unfriended and the latest from Disneynature, Monkey Kingdom.
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