Furious again blows past rivals

Scott Eastwood plays a former champion bull rider looking to make a comeback in The Longest Ride. It came in third at last weekend’s box office and made about $13 million.
Scott Eastwood plays a former champion bull rider looking to make a comeback in The Longest Ride. It came in third at last weekend’s box office and made about $13 million.

LOS ANGELES -- Furious 7 again raced to the top spot at the box office last weekend.

The latest installment from the Universal Pictures franchise dominated ticket sales with an estimated $59.6 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters in its second weekend -- a robust number despite a 59 percent drop from its opening weekend.

The second-weekend receipts pushed the film's total to about $252 million -- the highest ever for the franchise.

The film, which had a $190 million price tag, crossed the $200 million mark in just eight days, surpassing the studio's previous record for reaching that milestone, set in 2013 by Despicable Me 2 in 11 days.

Directed by James Wan (Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring), Furious 7 passed the $800 million mark worldwide in less than two weeks, with a big boost coming from China.

The action film opened in first place in China on Sunday, with an estimated $68.6 million, the highest one-day gross ever for the country.

The final film for actor Paul Walker, Furious 7 fills out its ensemble with Vin Diesel, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Jason Statham, Dwayne Johnson and Michelle Rodriguez. They reach high speeds in Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, the Dominican Republic and Abu Dhabi.

Walker died in a car crash away from production in November 2013, and the release date was pushed back from July 2014. Computer effects were used to complete Walker's remaining scene, and his brothers Caleb and Cody were brought in as stand-ins.

Curiosity about how the film would handle Walker's death likely helped ticket sales, though Nicholas Carpou, Universal's head of domestic distribution, said fan interest was a bigger factor opening weekend.

"While curiosity could be a factor, the first weekend would have been the one to quench that thirst," Carpou said. "But what we're seeing in some cases is that people are seeing it multiple times. ... There's tremendous interest on what this group of characters does next and what exploits they undergo."

DreamWorks Animation's Home landed in second place in its third weekend with about $18.5 million, while this weekend's romance newcomer The Longest Ride roped in the No. 3 spot.

The adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks tale, starring Scott Eastwood and Britt Robertson, brought in $13 million -- in line with projections.

The 20th Century Fox film, about a rodeo star who romances a college student, cost $34 million to make and performed better than the most recent Sparks' adaptation, The Best of Me, which opened in October to $10 million.

Still, The Longest Ride numbers were low for a Sparks adaptation. Safe Haven took in $21.4 million in its 2013 opening, and The Lucky One opened at $22.5 million in 2012.

"As the film moves forward and word of mouth spreads, things will pick up," Chris Aronson, Fox's head of distribution, said of The Longest Ride. "There's a clear playing field ahead for a romantic film. And we saw that its strong suit was between the coasts."

Though it didn't find love with critics, audiences gave it an A rating with polling firm CinemaScore. As Aronson noted, ticket sales were strong in middle America and, as expected, the audience skewed female (73 percent).

Get Hard, the prison comedy starring Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart, came in fourth place with $8.2 million in its third weekend. The Warner Bros. R-rated comedy, which cost $40 million to make, has grossed about $71 million to date.

PG-rated Cinderella, meanwhile, rounded out the top five with about $7 million. The Disney live-action film has brought in a domestic total of $181 million during its five weeks in theaters.

In limited release, the well-reviewed artificial intelligence thriller Ex Machina opened with an impressive $237,264, or $59,316 per-screen-average. The film, which marks the directorial debut of 28 Days Later writer Alex Garland, will expand to more theaters on April 24.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Rentrak:

  1. Furious 7, Universal, $59,585,930, 4,022 locations, $14,815 average, $251,516,400, two weeks.

  2. Home, 20th Century Fox, $18,532,280, 3,703 locations, $5,005 average, $129,085,777, three weeks.

  3. The Longest Ride, 20th Century Fox, $13,019,686, 3,366 locations, $3,868 average, $13,019,686, one week.

  4. Get Hard, Warner Bros., $8,218,246, 3,132 locations, $2,624 average, $70,783,826, three weeks.

  5. Cinderella, Disney, $7,137,814, 3,025 locations, $2,360 average, $180,686,540, five weeks.

  6. The Divergent Series: Insurgent, Lionsgate, $6,710,498, 3,118 locations, $2,152 average, $114,708,645, four weeks.

  7. Woman In Gold, The Weinstein Co., $5,483,125, 1,504 locations, $3,646 average, $8,934,023, two weeks.

  8. It Follows, Radius-TWC, $1,943,868, 1,633 locations, $1,190 average, $11,715,129, five weeks.

  9. Danny Collins, Bleecker Street, $1,483,138, 738 locations, $2,010 average, $2,379,683, four weeks.

  10. Kingsman: The Secret Service, 20th Century Fox, $1,308,312, 1,013 locations, $1,292 average, $124,521,609, nine weeks.

  11. While We're Young, A24 Films, $1,212,033, 246 locations, $4,927 average, $2,190,064, three weeks.

  12. Do You Believe? Pure Flix, $931,305, 1,042 locations, $894 average, $11,511,905, four weeks.

  13. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Fox Searchlight, $636,318, 741 locations, $859 average, $31,459,822, six weeks.

  14. American Sniper, Warner Bros., $595,041, 616 locations, $966 average, $347,211,278, 16 weeks.

  15. McFarland, USA, Disney, $421,414, 518 locations, $814 average, $42,605,917, eight weeks.

  16. Focus, Warner Bros., $300,316, 424 locations, $708 average, $53,344,851, seven weeks.

  17. Run All Night, Warner Bros., $300,016, 422 locations, $711 average, $25,916,827, five weeks.

  18. Ex Machina, A24 Films, $237,264, four locations, $59,316 average, $237,264, one week.

  19. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, Paramount, $230,460, 308 locations, $748 average, $161,305,500, 10 weeks.

  20. Chappie, Columbia, $198,202, 280 locations, $708 average, $31,121,710, six weeks.

MovieStyle on 04/17/2015

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