Sunday, April 12, 2015

Weekend Report: 'Furious 7' Repeats, Sets Opening Day Record in China


VIA: With an estimated $60.6 million, Furious 7 easily held on to first place at the domestic box office. It also got off to an incredible start in China, where it set the opening day record with $68.6 million.

At the domestic box office, Furious 7's 59 percent drop was a slight improvement over Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6, both of which fell over 62 percent in their second frames. On Sunday, it passed Fast & Furious 6 to become the highest-grossing entry in the franchise with $252.5 million. Without any serious competition for the next two weeks, the movie is guaranteed to earn at least $350 million total.

Worldwide, Furious 7 is already the highest-grossing Fast movie with $800 million. It's now on track to become one of the biggest movies ever with at least $1.2 billion.

DreamWorks Animation's Home (2015) held on to the second spot with an estimated $19 million, which is down 30 percent from last weekend. To date, its earned $129.6 million, which is ahead of The Croods and How to Train Your Dragon 2 through the same point.

Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Longest Ride opened to an estimated $13.5 million from 3,366 locations this weekend. That's above last Fall's The Best of Me ($10 million), and essentially on par with past Sparks movies The Notebook and Nights in Rodanthe.

This isn't a particularly strong result, though it does feel like this is about as good as a Sparks movie is going to do without a major star or two in the leading roles. Ultimately, The Longest Ride should wind up earning around $30 million.

Get Hard took fourth place with an estimated $8.64 million. That's off 34 percent from last weekend, which is a very solid hold considering how hard it fell in its second frame. To date, the Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedy has earned $71.2 million, which puts it ahead of recent Hart movie The Wedding Ringer ($64.5 million).

In its fifth weekend, Cinderella eased 29 percent to an estimated $7.23 million. It's now earned $180.8 million, and still has a slim chance of ultimately reaching $200 million.

The Divergent Series: Insurgent took sixth place this weekend with an estimated $6.85 million, which is down 32 percent from last weekend. To date, its earned $114.8 million, which trails the original Divergent by $10 million.

After a week in moderate release, Woman in Gold expanded to 1,504 locations and earned an estimated $5.85 million. Woman in Gold has already grossed $9.3 million, and is now poised to make a serious run at $20 million.

In its third weekend in wide release, indie horror flick It Follows fell 19 percent to $2.03 million. The word-of-mouth hit has now earned $11.8 million.

After three weeks in limited release, Danny Collins expanded nationwide (739 locations) this weekend and grossed an estimated $1.6 million. That's a fine result for first-time distributor Bleecker Street. The movie has so far earned $2.5 million, and will likely wrap up north of $6 million.

In its third weekend, While We're Young expanded to 246 locations and earned an estimated $1.38 million. That's the biggest weekend ever for writer/director Noah Baumbach. Baumbach's highest-grossing movie ever is The Squid and the Whale with $7.37 million; with at least one more expansion on the way, it will be interesting to see how close While We're Young can get to that number.

Ex Machina opened to an estimated $250,000 from four locations, which translates to a strong $62,500 per-theater average. That's the biggest per-theater average so far this year, and second-biggest ever for distributor A24 (in both cases, ahead of While We're Young). With strong reviews, look for this to expand nationwide over the next few weeks.

Around-the-World Roundup

Furious 7 added $195 million overseas this weekend, which includes a stunning $68.6 million on opening day (Sunday) in China.

That's a new single day record in China, and is essentially equal to what the last movie made in its entire run there. It's too early to say exactly what this means in the long run, but it's also hard to imagine Furious 7 earning less than $250 million in the world's second-largest market.

The movie also opened in Russia this weekend, where it set a four-day record with $15 million. It's already Universal's highest-grossing movie in 14 smaller territories, and it's set to expand in to Japan (its final market) next weekend.

Through 12 days, Furious 7 has earned a stunning $548 million overseas, and is a day away from passing Fast & Furious 6's $550 million. Including the U.S., the movie has already grossed $800 million worldwide.

Assuming there's $100 million more in the U.S., $200 million more in China, and $200 million more in the rest of the world, Furious 7 is on track to wind up with around $1.3 billion. That would rank fifth all-time behind Avatar, Titanic, The Avengers and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

Home (2015) added $15 million for a new total of $111 million. Meanwhile, Cinderella took in $12.6 million, which brings its foreign total to $256 million.

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