Weekend box office: The Fate of the Furious dominates as expected
Everyone knew that THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS was going to finish atop the weekend box office, but there are still a few things to digest around the eighth film in the franchise. The biggest thing is that its $102 million opening is far less than the $147 million FURIOUS 7 opened with. Many will point to FURIOUS 7 as being a bit of an outlier since Paul Walker passed away before the release, which is understandable. So then we’d have to go back to FAST AND FURIOUS 6, which opened with $97 million. If we ignore the seventh film, then that means the eighth film opened with only $5 million more than the sixth, which tells me the franchise is struggling to pick up a new audience. However, let’s take a step back and remind ourselves that it’s crazy this franchise has made it to eight films and the fact the eighth film is hauling in $100+ million is pretty incredible. As long as these films open close to $100 million, I don’t see them stopping any time soon.
Next week is a gimme for Hollywood studios as none of them want to open the week after a Fast and Furious movie. There are no real contenders, but we do get a few films to note. First up is THE PROMISE with Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale. It has the star power, but it’s a sad drama about the Armenian genocide and I don’t see that appealing to too many people. Next is FREE FIRE, which looks awesome and has gotten rave reviews, but again, I’m not sure it will find a wide audience at the box office (although I bet this one will clean up on home video). Finally, there’s the animated LEAP. Although I usually don’t bet against animated films, I don’t think this one will find footing against the two animated kids movies still hanging in the top five. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.
1. The Fate of the Furious $102.6m
2. The Boss Baby $15.9m
3. Beauty and the Beast $13.1m
4. Smurfs: The Lost Village $6.8m
5. Going in Style $6.2m
6. Gifted $3m
7. Saban’s Power Rangers $2.9m
8. The Case for Christ $2.8m
9. Kong: Skull Island $2.5m
10. Ghost in the Shell $2.3m
(Deadline)
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