‘Fate of the Furious’ in Dead Heat with ‘Fast & Furious 6’
There’s still plenty of gas in the tank for The Fate of the Furious. The eighth installment of the racing and heist franchise topped out the weekend with an estimated $38.7 million.
There was no doubt that The Fate of the Furious would run a second lap around the box office this weekend. The bigger question was how fast it would burn up. Down 60.8%, The Fate of the Furious held more along the lines of Furious 7 (-59.5%) than Fast & Furious 6 (-63.9%). That’s even better than franchise favorite, Fast Five (-62.4%). To be fair, Fast Five went head-to-head with Marvel’s Thor in its sophomore frame. The Fate of the Furious does trail Fast & Furious 6 by 5% right now, which places the finish line at $225 million. That can change in the coming weeks, especially with Guardians 2 expected to dominate the field as summer kicks off with a bang.
In its best holdover to date, DreamWorks Animation’s The Boss Baby held on to the second place spot with $12.8 million. Down 20.4%, the animated Alec Baldwin comedy has made its way to just under $137 million. Lack of family-friendly competition will push The Boss Baby north of $150 million easily. Once there, it’ll join the company of Trolls ($153.7 million). However, a few more strong holds may even push it closer to $160 million when it’s all said and done.
After falling 40% every weekend since mid-March, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast finally caught a break. In its sixth weekend, the live-action Disney remake made another $10 million. Dipping only 27.2%, Beauty and the Beast has now surpassed over $471 million domestically. There’s no doubt that it’ll be eyeing The Phantom Menace ($474.5 million) and Finding Dory ($486.3 million) in the coming weeks. But beyond that, there’s little chance at $500 million at this point. A miracle Jungle Book finish perhaps?
Capitalizing on Earth Day, Disneynature’s Born in China was the only newcomer to crack the top charts. The Asian animal documentary narrated by John Krasinski, grossed $5.1 million over the weekend. That surpasses the other newcomers – Unforgettable ($4.8 million), The Promise ($4.1 million), Phoenix Forgotten ($2 million) and Free Fire ($1 million). For Disneynature, this is the studio’s best showing since Chimpanzee ($10.7 million) in 2012. Born in China pushed slightly ahead of 2014’s Bears ($4.8 million) and 2015’s Monkey Kingdom ($4.6 million). Overall, this is a standard turnout for nature documentaries. Unless you’re a breakout hit like March of the Penguins.
Warner Bros.’ elderly comedy Going in Style hung onto the fifth place spot one more weekend. Pulling in $5 million its third weekend, the Alan Arkin, Morgan Freeman comedy is now up to $31.8 million. A 20.4% dip is exactly what it needed, especially as so many new releases misfired. This is most likely be its last hurrah with the Emma Watson thriller, The Circle being the most likely candidate to knock it off the top 5 next weekend. Warner Bros. should at the very least be satisfied for the eventual 3x multiplier.
Note: These #’s are based on Sunday’s projections and can change with Monday’s actual #’s.
#1 – The Fate of the Furious (1)
$38.7 million / $163.6 million total
#2 – The Boss Baby (2)
$12.8 million / $137.0 million total
#3 – Beauty and the Beast (3)
$10.0 million / $471.1 million total
#4 – Born in China (NR)
$5.1 million / $5.1 million total
#5 – Going in Style (5)
$5.0 million / $31.8 million total
Opening Next Week: The Circle, How to be a Latin Lover, Sleight
Source: Box Office Mojo
