Sunday Update: Universal’s Furious 7 easily led the weekend box office for a second straight frame with an estimated weekend take of $60.6 million. That represented the twelfth largest second weekend performance of all-time (without adjusting for ticket price inflation). The well-received seventh installment of the blockbuster franchise featuring Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and the late Paul Walker was down 59 percent from last weekend. While that was obviously a sizable second weekend decline, it nonetheless represented an impressive hold given the size of the film’s grosses and that the previous three installments of The Fast and The Furious franchise all experienced second weekend declines in the range of 61 percent to 64 percent. Furious 7 was aided by strong word of mouth, strong critical reviews and the lack of any new direct competition this weekend. And as massive as last weekend’s debut was; it was likely still deflated slightly by Easter weekend.
Furious 7 has grossed $252.52 million through ten days of release, which ranks as the ninth largest ten-day start of all-time. The film is running an extremely impressive 48 percent ahead of the $171.00 million ten-day gross of 2013’s Fast & Furious 6 and 2 percent ahead of the $248.48 million ten-day gross of 2012’s The Hunger Games. Furious 7 is now the highest grossing film of The Fast and The Furious franchise domestically, as it has already surpassed the $238.68 million final gross of Fast & Furious 6. Furious 7 will zoom past the $300 million domestic milestone before long and is in excellent shape to eventually surpass the $350 million mark.
Home held steady in second place with an estimated $19.0 million. The 3D computer animated film from Fox and DreamWorks Animation was down 30 percent from last weekend. On the heels of last weekend’s sizable second weekend decline, Home stabilized nicely this weekend. Home continues to exceed expectations in a very big way with a 17-day take of $129.55 million. That places the film 3 percent ahead of the $125.35 million 17-day gross of 2013’s The Croods. Home will have a good chance of holding up well going forward, especially with no new animated films entering the marketplace between now and the June 19th launch of Disney’s Inside Out.
Fellow Fox release The Longest Ride debuted in third place with an estimated $13.5 million. The Nicholas Sparks adaptation starring Britt Robertson and Scott Eastwood opened on the lower end of pre-release expectations. Compared to other Nicholas Sparks adaptations, The Longest Ride debuted 35 percent ahead of the $10.00 million start of last year’s The Best of Me and 40 percent below the $22.52 million launch of 2012’s The Lucky One.
The Longest Ride opened with $5.50 million on Friday (which included an estimated $625,000 from Thursday evening), fell 11 percent on Saturday to gross $4.90 million and is estimated to decline 37 percent on Sunday to take in $3.10 million. That places the film’s estimated opening weekend to Friday ratio at just 2.45 to 1. That isn’t the greatest early sign for the film going forward. However, The Longest Ride did receive a very encouraging A rating on CinemaScore.
Warner’s Get Hard placed in fourth with an estimated $8.64 million. The R-rated comedy starring Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart was down one spot and 34 percent from last weekend. Much like Home, Get Hard also stabilized very nicely this weekend after experiencing a sharp decline last weekend. Get Hard has grossed $71.20 million through 17 days of release. That is towards the lower end of expectations and places the film 19 percent behind the $88.25 million 17-day take of 2010’s The Other Guys.
Cinderella rounded out the weekend’s top five with an estimated $7.23 million. Disney’s blockbuster fairy tale adaptation was down one spot and a healthy 29 percent from last weekend. Cinderella has grossed $180.77 million in 31 days, which leaves the film $19.23 million away from reaching the $200 million domestic milestone. Cinderella is running 10.5 percent behind the $202.01 million 31-day gross of last year’s Maleficent.
The Divergent Series: Insurgent placed in sixth with an estimated $6.85 million. The second installment of Lionsgate’s young adult franchise was down one spot and just 32 percent from last weekend. Insurgent has grossed $114.85 million in 24 days. That places the film 8 percent behind the $124.76 million 24-day take of last year’s Divergent.
The Weinstein Company’s Woman In Gold followed in seventh with $5.85 million in its first weekend of wide release. The drama starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds generated a per-location average of $3,891 from 1,504 locations. Woman In Gold was up 180 percent over last weekend’s limited launch and has grossed a very solid $9.30 million in twelve days.
On the platform front, A24’s Ex Machina was off to a strong start with an estimated $249,956 from 4 locations in New York and Los Angeles. That gave the critically acclaimed Alex Garland directed sci-fi film a per-location average of $62,489 for the frame. Ex Machina will expand into additional locations going forward.
Saturday Update: Universal reports that Furious 7 took in another $18.8 million on Friday, boosting its domestic haul up to $210.7 million. Crossing the $200 million domestic threshold in an impressive eight days, the well-received film topped The Hunger Games‘ $208.6 million as the ninth best eight-day haul in history. The pic is also pacing an incredible 44 percent ahead of Fast & Furious 6, and even surpassed the final $209.8 million domestic total of Fast Five yesterday. Word of mouth and the emotional tribute to Paul Walker continue driving the film’s success as it heads toward what Universal projects will be a $60.2 million sophomore frame.
Holding onto second, DreamWorks’ Home added $5.58 million yesterday, down 51 percent from Good Friday last week. Through 15 days, the animated hit has tallied $116.1 million domestically — 5 percent ahead of the pace of The Croods. BoxOffice projects a $19.5 million third frame.
Debuting in third place yesterday, The Longest Ride posted $5.5 million — 33 percent ahead of The Best of Me‘s $4.1 million first day last October. The latest Nicholas Sparks adaptation is generating average word of mouth for the genre with a 71 percent Rotten Tomatoes audience score and 29 percent critics’ score this morning. BoxOffice projects a $14 million opening weekend.
Get Hard claimed fourth place on Friday with $2.63 million, off 47 percent from Good Friday. The Will Ferrell-Kevin Hart comedy has banked a modest-but-successful $65.2 million thus far. BoxOffice projects $8.0 million for the weekend.
Filling out the top five, Cinderella took in $2.28 million for a 44 percent decline from Good Friday. Disney’s flick stands at $175.8 million domestically and should take in around $7.4 million this weekend. Just behind that film was The Divergent Series: Insurgent with $2.15 million, bringing its total to $110.15 million. The latter film is projected to earn $7 million for the weekend.
Meanwhile, Woman In Gold expanded to 1,504 locations this weekend and brought in $1.8 million on Friday. That gives the film $5.25 million in the bank since debuting in limited release last week. BoxOffice projects a $6.0 million weekend.
Check BoxOffice on Sunday for official weekend estimates from the studios.
Friday Update #2: Sources tell BoxOffice that Furious 7 is headed for $63 million during its sophomore frame.
The Longest Ride is looking solid with a potential $15 million-$16 million debut frame.
Check back tomorrow for updated projections and official studio numbers.
Friday Update #1: Sources report that Fox’s The Longest Ride saddled up with a decent $625,000 to start its weekend last night. That’s slightly ahead of the $530,000 Thursday night start posted by fellow Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Best of Me last October. That film went on to earn $10 million for its weekend. Pre-release tracking had suggested The Longest Ride could open to mid-teens, so it’ll need to hold up a bit stronger starting today to match that target.
Meanwhile, Furious 7 will easily claim first place again for its sophomore frame. Having already become the top grossing film of 2015 thus far, the blockbuster sequel is expected to land north of $60 million this weekend.
Share this post