Weekend Box Office: Furious 7 Keeps the Pedal to the Box Office Metal

Universal’s Furious 7 continued to race its way into the box office record books around the globe this weekend. The insanely popular action flick not only stayed at the top of the North American box office, where it held off solid debuts from Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 and Unfriended, it also continued to set records in foreign markets such as China where it has earned a quarter billion dollars after only one week.

Domestically or internationally, it is all Furious 7 all the time at the multiplexes. In North America, the film added $29.1 million in ticket sales from 3,964 screens to bring its 17-day haul to an incredible $294.5 million. The weekend coin earned from overseas was a staggering $167 million, of which $93 million came from China. Combine the domestic with the $858 million foreign total and you have the fastest film in history to ever earn a billion dollars at the box office.


With $1.152 billion in the bank, Furious 7 currently is seventh on the all-time global box office charts (pre-inflation) between Iron Man 3 and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Depending on how well the film holds up against the next big global juggernaut, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Furious 7 could finish close to $1.5 billion in sales, which would put it fourth on the all-time highest grossers behind Avatar, Titanic and the first Avengers film.

Back in 2009, the low-budget family comedy Paul Blart: Mall Cop opened to a surprising $30 million over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. It went on to finish with a big $146 million. Given its profitability factor, a sequel was inevitable. It may have taken half dozen years to do so, but Paul is back with Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2. The $30 million Sony sequel arrived on 3,633 screens where it earned $23.7 million in its first three days. Kevin James returns as the bumbling security officer, who finds himself in Las Vegas this time around.

Blart bombed out with the nation’s critics, who bestowed the film with a big fat goose egg of an approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Ticket buyers weren’t as vicious but they weren’t exactly singing Paul’s praises either. They gave the film a “B-“ CinemaScore rating, which could translate into a quick –albeit profitable- fade at the box office.

Universal saw more box office good fortune this past weekend with the number three film in the country, the micro-budgeted thriller Unfriended. The online scarefest was more of a hit with critics (64% on Rotten Tomatoes) than it was with viewers (a “C-“ on CinemaScore), but that didn’t stop the latest thriller from producer Jason Blume from becoming instantly profitable (the film cost a mere one million dollars to produce). Arriving on 2,739 screens Unfriended nabbed $15.8 million in its third place debut.

In fourth place was the Fox/Dreamworks hit animated feature Home with $10.6 million from 3,488 theaters. After one month Home has earned $143 million domestically and $127.3 million overseas. With no direct competition on the horizon, the animated feature may reach $180 million by the end of its run.

Rounding out the top five was the Fox romantic drama The Longest Ride. The big screen adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel earned $7 million from 3,371 screens. Off 46%, Ride has earned $23.6 million in ten days and should finish between $37-40 million.

While Paul Blart and Unfriended met with success in their first three days of release, the news wasn’t as good for three other features that arrived on the cinematic scene Friday. Disney Nature’s The Monkey Kingdom opened on 2,012 screens where it brought in a so-so $4.5 million. Fox Searchlight’s James Franco/Jonah Hill thriller True Story could only muster $1.9 million from 831 theaters.

But the big bomb of the group was the Tom Hardy serial killer flick Child 44. The $50 million production was released by Lionsgate on 510 screens where it was given the cold shoulder to the tune of $621,000 for a dismal seventeenth place finish. Reviews were largely negative for the R-rated feature, a factor that undoubtedly hurt the film’s chances of reaching its target adult audience. The film co-stars Gary Oldman, Noomi Rapace, Jason Clarke and Joel Kinnaman.

Rounding out the top ten were the following:

6. Get Hard (Warner) $4.9 million (-40%); $78.3 million

7. Woman in Gold (Weinstein Company) $4.6 million (-16%); $16 million

9. The Divergent Series: Insurgent (Lionsgate) $4 million (-39%); $120 million

10. Cinderella (2015) (Disney) $4 million (-43%): $186 million

With only the Lionsgate drama The Age of Adaline opening in wide release Friday, watch for Furious 7 to take the checkered flag in North America for a fourth and final weekend. Avengers: Age of Ultron begins its global assault overseas Friday and debuts in North America on May 1st.

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