Fast Five Speeds Into Box Office Record Book

The 2011 summer movie season kicked off in grand style this weekend at the North American box office thanks to the humongous debut of Vin Diesel powered Fast Five, the latest installment of the Fast and Furious series from Universal Pictures. Not only did the movie obliterate fellow debuts Hoodwinked Too, Prom and Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, it made more than the rest of the top ten combined. The massive debut for the Universal flick also elevated the box office a whopping 53% from last year at this time, putting one of the weakest earning periods for motion pictures in the rear view mirror.

Roaring into 3,644 screens which include 243 in the IMAX format, Universal’s latest entry in its cars and crime franchise amassed an incredible $83.6 million in estimated ticket sales. The opening for Fast Five set several records over its first three days. Not only was it the biggest opening of any film this year, beating the combined openings of Rango ($38 million) and Rio ($39 million), it was also the biggest April debut and the biggest opening in the history of Universal Studios (previous record holder was The Lost World: Jurassic Park with $72 million).

Fast Five’s good fortune also carried over to both critics and ticket buyers as well. The film, which reunited cast members Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson (with Dwayne Johnson thrown in for good measure) and Fast and Furious director Justin Lin, scored a solid 79% approval rating from the nation’s critics on Rotten Tomatoes. More importantly, the film was a hit with ticket buyers, who gave the film an overall Cinemascore grade of “A”, with males under 18 giving the film an “A+”. Suffice to say, chances are that we will be seeing a sixth chapter in a couple of years as work on a script is already underway (Fast & Furious: V6, perhaps?). Combined with a huge early overseas take of $82 million, Fast Five has zoomed to a big $165 million worldwide gross in just ten days.

Vin & Paul weren’t the only box office monsters overseas. Ahead of its May 6th debut in North America, Paramount unleashed Thor in 56 markets for a huge $83 million. With $10 million in ticket sales from the previous week, the Kenneth Branagh-directed thriller has amassed $93 million to date.

With a behemoth like Fast Five debuting, it was a given that Fox’s animated hit Rio would have to give up the top spot. While it dropped by half from its Easter weekend haul, the movie still attracted the crowds not interested in seeing cars and crime in Rio. Hanging around on 3,842 screens, Fox’s animated bird flick scored an estimated $14.4 million to bring its three-week total to a healthy domestic haul of $103 million. The film should wind down its North American run around the $130 mark. As of last Thursday, it had amassed a big $227 million in overseas sales.

As is the norm with most of his films, Tyler Perry’s latest Madea’s Big Happy Family saw most of its ticket sales happen in its first six days. For its second go-around, the latest film to feature Perry’s very popular Madea dropped by 60% to make an estimated $10.1 million from 2,288 screens to bring its ten-day total to the $41 million mark. The Lionsgate release should finish its run near the $55 million mark, chalking up another profitable box office hit for Perry and Lionsgate. Perhaps Perry should consider starring as Madea in the next Fast and Furious entry. How funny would that be?

Fox’s romantic drama Water For Elephants starring Twilight’s Robert Pattinson saw its audience shrink by 46% in its second weekend to bring in an estimated $9 million from 2,817 screens. The ten-day total for the Francis Lawrence-directed drama now stands at $26 million. The film should call it a day between $45-50 million in domestic sales.

Fifth and sixth place went to the other two debuts this weekend, neither of which made any sort of impact. Disney’s tween comedy Prom was a bomb, scoring a meek $5 million from 2,730 theaters. The film’s ad campaign was aimed squarely at tween girls and the movie was released to coincide with Prom season, but neither marketing move could amount to much at the box office. Watch for the movie to be out of theaters before the actual prom season begins.

Sixth place went to the winner of this weekend’s “who asked for this?” award, the animated sequel Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil 3D. The 2006 film was a surprise late-winter hit, amassing an okay $51 million in the very dead January timeframe. But in the five years between sequels, the original has been all but forgotten. Judging by the terrible $4.1 million haul from 2,505 screens, the second film should join the original shortly. Making matters even worse for Hoodwinked Too was the fact that 75% of the screens showing the movie were in 3D. Ouch.

The remainder of the top ten were holdovers. Seventh place went to the first sleeper hit from FilmDistrict in the top ten, the drama Soul Surfer. In its fourth weekend, the movie added $4.1 million to bring its total to the $33 million mark. In eighth place was the studio’s other sleeper hit, Insidious. The horror flick added $2.8 million to its coffers in its fifth week to bring its total to the $48.5 million mark.

Now that Easter is out of the way, Universal’s kiddie hit Hop is on its way out as well. The film earned $2.2 million in estimated leftover sales to bring its five-week total to the $105 range. Hop should head off to home video land with $110 million in its Easter basket. Rounding out the top ten is box office dud Scream 4, adding $2.2 million from 3,314 screens in its third weekend to bring its total to a dismal (in comparison to the first three films in the series) $36 million.

Next weekend, the summer movie season kicks it up a notch with the release of Paramount and Marvel’s very entertaining Thor, Warner’s romantic comedy Something Borrowed starring John Krasinski and Kate Hudson, the comedy Jumping the Broom and in limited release, the Mel Gibson comedy/drama Fun With Phone Calls. I mean, The Beaver. Of the three wide releases, only Thor is expected to give Vin and company a fight for first place.

– Shawn Fitzgerald

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