Sunday Morning Update: After tallying the numbers for the past week it really was no surprise that Furious 7 topped all buzz seeing as though it is on the eve of its release and has been getting surprisingly strong views by those critics fortunate enough to have been offered a screening. Regardless of what critics said this was going to be a blockbuster thanks to the upward trajectory of recent films and the tragic story of this being Paul Walker’s last role. I would be very surprised if this didn’t rake more than $100 million n its first weekend. Here at Box Office our early number is $119 million. With a start like that it should be a real contender for $1 billion worldwide during its run.
A waning Paper Towns and Avengers: Age Of Ultron occupied second and third slot on the weekend despite falling 50% and 35% respectively. Nothing to be alarmed with really as news from recent announcements died down. While I do expect Paper Towns to cool a bit in the coming weeks until more news/another trailer surfaces, the Age Of Ultron marketing machine is about to kick into high gear in coming weeks as its release approaches. It should reign supreme for the 2-3 weeks prior to release at least.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation unveiled its first trailer in the beginning of the week where it peaked at just over 24,000 tweets. The last installment Ghost Protocol had just 11,200 tweets with its first trailer back in June of 2011 so there is clearly an uptick in buzz surrounding the trailer here. Ghost Protocol was by far the most profitable in the franchise in terms of worldwide grosses, and Rogue Nation is no doubt hoping to build on that success (not unlike Furious 7 I might add). The film has been scheduled for a release over Christmas but the brass at Paramount decided it would be a better move to debut it in the late Summer. The first three films were May releases and saw openings north of $45 million in 1996, 2000 and 2006. Dare I say that Rogue Nation looks poised to open far above that, perhaps even topping $80 million. Hard to bet against its chances here.
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