We all expected big things. We expected Furious 7 to break the April opening weekend record of $95 million set by Captain America: The Winter Soldier just last year. We expected it to be the first Fast & Furious film to top $100 million in its opening weekend, but not many expected it to be one of the largest openings of all time.
With $147.1 million, Furious 7 now holds the record for the ninth largest opening of all-time, besting The Twilight Saga: New Moon‘s $142.8 million set back in 2009 (not adjusting for inflation). It will be interesting to see where this one ends up in the end. Fast & Furious 6 dropped 63.9% in its second weekend after a $97.3 million opening and I think it’s safe to assume Furious 7 is also extremely front-loaded, but just how much? Fast Five showed a similar drop its second weekend, dipping 62.4% back in 2011. One thing is for certain, by the end of next weekend (or probably before next Friday), Furious 7 will be the highest grossing domestic release of 2015 as it only needs $23.7 million to top Fifty Shades of Grey. Add the $240 million the film brought in overseas and a $383.6 million worldwide debut ain’t half bad.
Compared to the rest of the films in the franchise, Furious 7 has already made more than 2 Fast 2 Furious ($127.1m) and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift ($62.5m) and came close to topping franchise starter, The Fast and the Furious, which earned $144.5 million back in 2001.
Next weekend’s competition in the same territory isn’t much of a threat as Ex Machina will encourage some viewers, but will Furious 7 enjoy a lot of repeat visits? The “A” CinemaScore definitely suggests people enjoyed what they saw.
Last weekend’s #1 film, Dreamworks Animation’s Home dipped 48% for a $27 million sophomore frame while Get Hard was only able to stay that way for so long, dropping 61%. The Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart comedy added $13.1 million to its tally, which is now at $57 million domestically.
The Weinstein’s Woman in Gold, starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds, found its way into 258 theaters and managed $2 million for a $7,767 per theater average.
As I already said, next weekend has Ex Machina along with the new Nicholas Sparks adaptation, The Longest Ride, and limited releases of Clouds of Sils Maria and Ryan Gosling‘s Lost River.
