“Furious 7” has arrived and it has conquered. The latest installment of the “Fast and Furious” franchise took in $67.3 million on Friday surpassing “The Hunger Games” for the 11th biggest single day in box office history. At this pace, the James Wan directed thriller should take between $145-150 million for the three-day frame and that would put it right outside the top 10 for all-time opening weekends.
Comparatively, the previous highest grosser in the franchise was the last movie, “Fast & Furious 6” which earned $97 million on its way to a franchise record $238 million domestic and $788.6 million global tallies. Audiences have clearly flocked to theaters and to say goodbye to star Paul Walker in his last film (a fact Universal Pictures subtly avoided in its marketing except for the poster). “Fast 7” earned an A Cinemascore and critics have also given it a thumbs up. The movie matched the 67 grade “Fast Five” earned on Metacritic and its 81% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes is the best the series has earned so far. Box office watchers are no doubt wondering how high “Furious 7? will go. A $300 million domestic cume seems like a given, but is $400 million out of reach? It may all depend on how much the flick can make before “Avengers: Age of Ultron” arrives on May 3.
Dropping to no. 2 was DreamWorks Animation's “Home” which finished off a strong week with another $11.3 million for $79.4 million in just eight days. The 20th Century Fox release is on its way to surpassing the $187 million gross “The Croods” ended up with in 2013.
“Get Hard” came in at no. 3 with $5 million and $49 million in, also, eight days. With little comedy competition until May it has a shot at surpassing $90 million when all is said and done.
“Cinderella” was fourth with $4.07 million and a magical $161 million to date.
“Insurgent” rounded out the top five with another $4 million and $97.3 million so far. It should pass the $100 million mark sometime today.
Look for box office updates all weekend long on HitFix.