It was a fairly sleepy weekend at the domestic box-office aside from some major milestones. Universal’s “Furious 7” held the number #1 spot for the fourth week running — new contenders like “The Age of Adaline” not able to muster much competition. While “Furious 7” added another $18 million to its at-home tally (it’s Uni’s highest grossing franchise by a mile), the worldwide figure now stands at a whopping $1.321 billion. This means the seventh ‘Furious’ film is the 5th highest grossing film of all time, moving up one spot from last week and surpassing Disney‘s "Frozen" which now moves to the #6 all-time box office slot. At this rate, four weeks in, "Furious 7" should be able to easily surpass "The Avengers” ($1.5 billion) to become the third highest grossing film of all time ("Avatar" and "Titanic" are in another stratosphere past the $2 billion mark). “Furious 7” has grossed $320 million worldwide, is 2015’s highest grossing film at home so far and should be able to beat the 2014 record held by “American Sniper” ($348 million domestically).
READ MORE: Top 10 Takeaways: ‘Furious 7’ Leads, Family & Indie Films Take Most Other Slots
Otherwise, the biggest box-office story this weekend is for a movie that hasn’t even opened here yet. Marvel’s “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” opened in forty four markets abroad and grossed a massive $201.2 million internationally (that’s 40% higher than the original film). U.S. openings are being estimated around $150-$160 million and territories like China, Japan and most of the Latin American nations are still to come. We should probably prepare ourselves for a Hulk-sized opening next weekend. Perhaps the other narrative of the weekend was underwhelming performances or outright failures. In almost 3,000 screens, Liongate‘s time-spanning romantic drama "Age Of Adaline" couldn’t muster more than $13.3 million. Another new release, Russell Crowe‘s directorial debut, "The Water Diviner" crashed and mostly burned in a expanded limited release (320 screens). The movie could only gross $1.2 million for a low $3,906 per-screen average.
On 1,000 screens, Open Road Films‘ "Little Boy" failed to crack the top 10 as well and grossed only $2.8 million (a low 2,708). One limited release film that finally expanded wide this weekend is having crazy success. A24‘s "Ex Machina," a well-received intelligent sci-fi thriller, jumped 581.3%, expanding by 1,255 screens for a $5.4 million wide-release opening. The film has already grossed $6.9 million domestically, $13.9 million worldwide, and is on track to become A24’s highest grossing film domestically (the record holder is “Spring Breakers” at $13 million and change).
Elsewhere at the box-office, despite an underwhelming opening, Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart’s “Get Hard” has climbed up to $84 million domestically, so that one won’t end up being a huge hit, but not an embarrassment either. “Paul Blart 2” and “Unfriended” are doing decent, though not exceptional business (though the latter was made for $10 so its grosses are more than enough).
In interesting box-office milestones, “Kingsman: Secret Service” is long gone from the top 10, but has grossed nearly $400 million worldwide which bodes extremely well for a sequel. After a killer opening stateside, "Fifty Shades of Grey" leveled off at the U.S. box office (it won’t cross $200 million), but it has grossed nearly $600 million worldwide (the kink romance currently sits at $568 million globally). The highest per-screen average of the weekend wasn’t crazy high either; a $5,300 PSA for Tribeca comedy doc "Misery Loves Comedy" from one screen. Not far behind in the limited field was "Adult Beginners" which took in $40,100 from 10 screens for a $4,010 PSA.
1. Furious 7 — $18,259,000 ($320,536,000)
2. Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 — $15,500,000 ($43,950,000)
3. The Age of Adaline — 13,375,000
4. Home — $8,300,000 ($153,784,000)
5. Unfriended — $6,244,000 ($25,158,000)
6. Ex Machina — $5,441,000 ($6,920,000)
7. The Longest Ride — $4,365,000 ($30,398,000)
8. Get Hard — $3,905,000 ($84,066,000)
9. Monkey Kingdom — $3,551,000 ($10,258,000)
10. Woman in Gold — $3,501,000 ($21,635,000)
You\’ve got the predicted opening weekend for Age of Ultron about $50 million too low there, fellas. It\’s predicted to make between $200-$210 mil next weekend.
The highest per screen of the weekend was actually FELIX AND MEIRA with $6500. That\’s what Breuggeman reported earlier today