By Chris Kavan - 04/20/15 at 12:02 AM CT
Although it took a bigger hit this weekend, Furious 7 still held on the top spot over the weekend. Even better, it crossed the $1 billion mark world-wide in record time and its place in history is assured. That meant that Paul Blart and Unfriended has to settle for runner-up status. The box office still looks good - though things are likely to wind down next weekend before Age of Ultron provides the next $1 billion offering to global audiences.
1) FURIOUS 7
Make it a three-peat for Furious 7. The seventh installment in the Furious series held on to its box office crown with a $29.05 million weekend. The 51% drop in its third weekend was a bit steeper than the last two entries, which only dipped 44% and 37%. That gives the new film a total of $294.4 million - it should have no problem crossing $300 million by next weekend, though it may be harder for it to hit $350 million with a new Avengers on the way. The biggest news for Furious 7, though, continues to be its impressive global haul. With China leading the way ($250.5 million and counting) its global total stands at $858.3 million - for a cumulative total of $1.15 billion. That makes it the 7th-highest grossing film of all time (not adjusted for inflation) and it still has plenty of steam left. Not only is it on track to become the highest-grossing film in China, but it is also now Universal Pictures first picture to hit $1 billion in its original run. It remains to be seen just how high it can climb, but it should easily make it into the top five of all time.
2)
PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2
The Kevin James comedy sequel beat out the social media horror entry for second place. With a $24 million debut, it is James' second-largest solo opening (behind the original Paul Blart at $31.8 million). The original Blart also went on to earn nearly $150 million - something Mall Cop 2 is going to fall well short of. It has the distinction of earning the rare 0% Rotten Tomatoes score - and audiences only gave it a "B-" Cinemascore. Still, Mall Cop 2 has a modest $30 million budget, so even if it does fall off quickly, it's still going to be in the black, most likely with a total around the $70 million mark.
3)
UNFRIENDED
Coming in third was the social media-driven horror film, Unfriended. The film opened to $16.02 million - and on a minimal marketing effort (and likely a smaller budget) it is going to be a modest hit on its own. Audiences gave it a typical score for a horror film - a none-too-impressive "C" cinemascore and thus it is likely to fall fast and hard. It doesn't help that the audience was mostly younger (74% under 25) - a fickle crowd that tends to be front-loaded more often than not. Given all the factors, Unfriended might be able to limp to $40 million, but the result should still be okay for a low-cost horror.
4)
HOME
The animated feature dropped two spots from second to fourth place. The film took in another $10.3 million (down 44.4% from last week) and now stands at $142.6 million - essentially on par with The Croods though the same point. It also was enough to blast passed its $135 million budget. The film should cross $150 million by next week and still has a shot to get to the $175 million mark before it leaves theaters.
5)
THE LONGEST RIDE
The latest Nicholas Spark's adaptation took a 47.4% hit in its second weekend and dropped from third to fight place with $$6.85 million. That was a better hold than last year's The Best of Me - which dipped 57% in its second week out. Thus far, The Longest Ride has taken in $23.5 million. It has a little more time, but it's probably going to fall short of $50 million
Outside the top five: The latest film from Disneynature, Monkey Kingdom, opened in the most theaters yet for the studio (2012) but had one of the weakest debuts at just $4.72 million (behind Bears, which opened to $4.78 million). Though it is likely to get a slight bump with Earth Day coming up - Monkey Kingdom will probably be lucky to make it to $15 million.
Woman in Gold continued to expand, adding over 500 theaters and it had the best hold out of any film in the top 10, dipping just 16% and taking in $4.6 million for a new total of just under $16 million.
Coming off great reviews and an impressive limited debut, Ex Machina added 35 theaters and expanded to 39 theaters taking in $814,000 (jumping from 18th to 14th place) and a still impressive $20,872 per-theater average.
Two other limited releases didn't far as well. True Crime, with Jonah Hill and James Franco, could only manage a $1.93 million opening in 810 theaters. Even with the star power, the film is likely to earn less than $10 million. Child 44, with Gary Oldman and Tom Hardy fared much worse with just $600,000 despite playing in over 500 theaters. Expect this one to quickly exit theaters.
Next week is another calm before the big Avengers onslaught. Two dramas enter the field - Age of Adeline and Little Boy. We'll see if Furious 7 has enough gas left to top a fourth weekend in theaters.
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