Universal’s Furious 7 took in $17.82 million this weekend to lead the weekend box office for a fourth consecutive frame. In doing so, Furious 7 became the first film to lead the box office for four consecutive weekends since The Hunger Games did so back in 2012. The seventh installment of the blockbuster franchise featuring Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and the late Paul Walker was down 39 percent from last weekend. Furious 7 was aided a bit this weekend by moviegoers who wanted to catch the film before Disney’s highly anticipated Avengers: Age of Ultron debuts in theatres this coming Friday. Furious 7 has grossed a massive $320.08 million in 24 days. That places the film a very impressive 46 percent ahead of the $219.72 million 24-day take of 2013’s Fast & Furious 6.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 held steady in a not-so-distant second place with $14.78 million. Sony’s modestly budgeted Kevin James led comedy sequel fell 38 percent from last weekend’s debut. Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2has grossed a solid $43.22 million through ten days of release. The film continues to run in line with pre-release expectations and is running 2 percent ahead of the $42.38 million ten-day start of 2011’s Zookeeper(which fell 38.5 percent in its second weekend to gross $12.33 million). Despite very poor critical reviews,Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 will hope to hold up well going forward due in part to facing a relatively limited amount of new competition for family audiences.
Lionsgate’s The Age of Adaline debuted in third place this weekend with $13.20 million. The romantic drama starring Blake Lively opened on the high end of expectations. The Age of Adaline opened just ahead of the $13.02 million start of Fox’s The Longest Ride earlier this month. That was an impressive feat given that The Age of Adaline wasn’t adapted from a pre-existing novel. The Age of Adaline took in $4.96 million on Friday (which included an estimated $575,000 from Thursday evening shows), increased 8.5 percent on Saturday to gross $5.39 million and declined 47 percent on Sunday to gross $2.86 million. That placed the film’s opening weekend to Friday ratio at 2.66 to 1. The Age of Adaline received an encouraging A- rating on CinemaScore.
Home grossed $8.01 million to remain in fourth place this weekend. The successful 3D computer animated film from Fox and DreamWorks Animation was down a slim 25 percent from last weekend. Home continues to exceed expectations in a big way with a 31-day take of $153.49 million. That places the film just behind the $154.63 million 31-day take of 2013’s The Croods.
Universal’s Unfriended rounded out the weekend’s top five with $6.16 million. The ultra low-budget horror film from Blumhouse Productions was down two spots and a sharp 61 percent from last weekend. Unfriendedhas grossed $25.08 million in ten days. While Unfriended isn’t quite living up to its break-out potential, it is still performing well with its cost in mind. Unfriended is running 28 percent behind the $34.80 million ten-day take of last year’s Ouija (which fell 46 percent in its second weekend to gross $10.74 million).
A24’s Ex Machina expanded very nicely in its first weekend of semi-wide release with a sixth place take of $5.35 million. The critically acclaimed Alex Garland directed sci-fi film generated a solid per-location average of $4,263 while playing in 1,255 locations this weekend. Ex Machina delivered the largest weekend performance ever for an A24 release in its first weekend of major release. The young distributor’s previous high-water mark was the $4.86 million take of 2013’s Spring Breakers in its first weekend of semi-wide release. Ex Machina has grossed a promising $6.83 million in 17 days. A24 will continue to expand the film into additional locations going forward.
Elsewhere in semi-wide release, Little Boy debuted all the way down in 13th place with $2.75 million. The modestly budgeted comedy drama from Open Road earned a respectable per-location average of $2,632 from 1,045 locations. Little Boy was especially front-loaded this weekend; the film opened with $1.36 million on Friday, decreased an alarming 41 percent on Saturday to gross $0.80 million and fell 26 percent on Sunday to gross $0.59 million. That gave the film an opening weekend to Friday ratio of just 2.03 to 1, which isn’t a good early sign for the film going forward.
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