With a massive over-achieving $147.1million (updated figure) domestically, the seventh film in the franchise owns April. Whether or not people had Easter on their minds, spring break or the NCAA basketball tournament, many took a couple of hours out to see this film.
It was also easily the best opening of the year as well. It left no doubt, either. even if it has the usual 50 percent drop next weekend, that would be huge.. No question about it, this film was big and it was going to be all along. Add in a death of a major star and all the hype and that equals a smash hit.
The movie’s premise did not matter here. But, there was already a fan base going in and this added on that and delivered.
Weekend
1. “Furious 7″ – $147.1 million
2. ‘Home” – $27 million
3. “Get Hard” – $12.7 million
4. “Cinderella” – $10.2 million
5. “Insurgent” – $10 million
In the preview story, it was noted that many films have indeed over-achieved lately when they do win. This was no exception an it did by around $25 million.
The cast list was impressive. It includes Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Lucas Black, Jason Statham, Djimon Hounsou, Ronda Rousy, Tony Jaaa and Kurt Russell.
Russell is expected to expand his role and branch out from here. The death of Walker had to play into the huge box office as well, but fans were going to go no matter what. Adding in the overseas box office of $245
million and this saw no letdown. the total take is now $391.2million.
The Wrap included a breakdown of the audience as well. Among their report, it said that 51 percent of the audience was male. One may think that would be higher, however. It was 44 percent under the age of 25.
The IMAX numbers are worthy of note as well as they saw $14 million in business, domestically.
“Home” came in second, as expected, but it was way off the leader.
But, this was weekend for “Furious 7” and curiosity played a factor as many went to see how the film-makers would deal with the death of a star. That will really come into focus if the film has a larger than normal drop net weekend. But, for now, the hype and promotion paid off.
“Get Hard” came in third and dropped 61.8 percent. “Women in Gold” starring Helen Mirren took in $2.1 million on only 258 screens.
To think, just last April a record was set when $95 million was made on “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” Now comes “Furious 7” and it wasn’t even a race.
