UPDATED Sunday, 7:13 AM: Universal is smiling today as, by all expectations this morning, its franchise film Furious 7 should end the weekend with right around $29M for a cume a of $294.4M. This is the first picture to make $1B picture in its first run in the studio’s 103-year history and passed that milestone on Friday in only 17 days, the fastest ever. However, it must be noted that Jurassic Park also hit the $1B mark worldwide, albeit only after being re-released. F7, which is called Fast & Furious 7 overseas, is still burning rubber overseas; for more on its performance, read our international box office report here. Weekend-to-weekend box office is down about 10%.
The last film to go three weekends No. 1 in a row was American Sniper and this one should go another lap next weekend with nothing stopping it until May 1 when Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron bows. The last picture to go four consecutive weekends at No. 1 for a three-day run was Hunger Games in 2012. Three other pictures opened this weekend – Sony’s comedy Paul Blart Mall Cop 2, Universal/Blumhouse’s horror flick Unfriended and Disneynature’s Monkey Kingdom.
“There are a lot of ways to measure success,” said Nick Carpou, president of domestic distribution for Universal. “I think Furious 7 is one of those films that there’s a big franchise fan base for and it is growing. With repeat viewings, you have different groups of friends coming together to seeing it which is propelling this film into another stratosphere. It speaks to the deep level of satisfaction that the fan base is enjoying.” Will there be a Furious 8? “Clearly everyone is interested in what’s going on with this storyline and these characters,” he said. Yep, with a franchise that has already grossed over $3.5B worldwide, it’s kind of a no-brainer that there will be.
Recent Comments
The sequel for Mall Cop will end this weekend bagging anywhere between $23.6M and $24M as it held on fairly well on Saturday night despite bad critical reviews. “We came in better than we thought we would which we are thrilled about. It far exceeded our expectations,” said Josh Greenstein, Sony’s president of worldwide marketing and distribution. “We’re the only PG film in the marketplace which should help us play for weeks and weeks. We got an A- CinemaScore for all audiences under 18 so I think that will work to our advantage.”
Deadline has to give a shout out to Mall Cop‘s star Kevin James as the film’s unsung hero. Why? Because the guy worked tirelessly promoting this film, to the point of suffering through a demonstration of a Segway on The Today Show. He also made the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest two-wheel Segway lesson as well as hitting the mark for the most people simultaneously performing a 360-turn on two-wheels of electric personal vehicle or a Segway in one place. Is it true? Um, look it up. James made the rounds … everywhere: The Tonight Show, The Late Show With David Letterman, Good Morning America, and was involved in the Mets Game Batting Practice and broadcast booth, the ESPN Car Wash, Rachael Ray, Mommy Blogger Q&A and a Parade Magazine essay on “Why We Love Underdogs.” Yes, he even did the faith-based circuit.
Unfriended dropped 12% on Saturday from its front-loaded Friday night take of $6.79M and will usher in $16M and maybe some change if its lucky today. Universal noted this morning that the film earned back 16 times its production budget. According to the studio, 74% of the audience was under 25 and 40% of the moviegoers were Hispanic with 32% Caucasian and 60% female. “How many pictures makes 16 times back their production budget?” asked Carpou. “One thing it speaks to really strongly is the relationship we have with Jason Blum and Blumhouse. These pictures seem to resonate with the public.” Carpou notes that this is the 10th Blumhouse film to gross $15M or more in its opening weekend. Now if they could just get that CinemaScore out of the C-range (which all these horror films seem to do).
Monkey Kingdom ended up as the lowest opening of all the Disneynature films since the division opened its first film in 2009. It is expected to gross only around $4.4M in its first weekend out. It even dropped a rung on the box office ladder overnight to push further down the box office top Ten. Disney believes it picture will hold better on Sunday and it is possible. The studio thinks maybe it could equal Bears’ performance last year to bring in $4.7M. Time will tell.
The second weekend of Fox’s The Longest Ride dropped about 46% and will bring in anywhere from $6.8M to $7M, depending on today’s movingoing for a total cume of around $23.7M. Also, A24’s Ex Machina did nicely this weekend in its limited run to take in a per screen average of about $20K. For more on the sci-fi picture’s performance and for other titles in limited release like the James Franco, Jonah Hill-starrer True Story and the Michael Douglas drama Beyond the Reach, read Brian Brooks’ specialty box office here.
Here is the Top Ten chart this Sunday morning.
1). Furious 7 (UNI), 3,964 theaters (-58%) / $8.3M Fri. / $12.8M to $13M Sat. (+55%) / $7.7M Sun. (-40%) / 3-day cume: $29M+ / Total cume: $294.4M / Wk 3
2). Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 (SONY), 3,633 theaters / $7.3M Fri. / $10M Sat. (+38%) / $6.5M Sun. (-35%) / 3-day cume: $23.6M to $24M / Wk 1
3). Unfriended (UNI), 2,739 theaters / $6.79M Fri. / $5.9M Sat. (-12%) / $2.2M Sun. (-45%) / 3-day cume: $16M / Wk 1
4). Home (FOX/DW), 3,488 theaters (-215) / $2.4M Fri. / $4.8M Sat. (+99%) / $3.1M Sun. (-35%) / 3-day cume: $10.3M / Total cume: $142.5M / Wk 4
5). The Longest Ride (FOX), 3,371 theaters (+5) / $2.4M Fri. / $2.9M Sat. (+23%) / $1.6M Sun. (-40%) /3-day cume: $6.8M to $7M (-46%) / Total cume: $23.6M / Wk 2
6). Get Hard (WB), 2,655 theaters (-477) / $1.4M Friday / $2.1M Sat. (+52%) / $1.1M Sun. (-45%) / 3-day cume: $4.8M / Total cume: $78.2M / Wk 4
7/8). Woman in Gold (TWC), 2011 theaters (+507) / $1.3M Friday / $1.9M Sat. (+46%) / $1.2M Sun. (-35%) / 3-day cume: $4.4M / Total cume: $15.7M / Wk 3
Monkey Kingdom (DIS), 2,012 theaters / $1.5M Fri. / $1.6M Sat. (+8%) / $1.2M Sun. (-25%) / 3-day cume: $4.4M / Wk 1
9). Insurgent (LG), 2,542 theaters (-576) / $1.2M Friday / $1.9M Sat. (+59%) / $1M Sun. (-45%) / 3-day cume: $4.1M / Total cume: $120.6M / Wk 5
10). Cinderella (DIS), 2,414 theaters (-611) / $1M Friday / $1.7M Sat. (+65%) / $1M Sun. (-40%) / 3-day cume: $3.8M to $3.9M / Total cume: $186.29M / Wk 6
Amanda N’Duka contributed to this report.
UPDATED Saturday, 11:22 PM: Furious 7 had a nice Saturday uptick for Universal and will likely race in with around $28.7M for the three-day to push its cume to around $294M. Sony’s sequel comedy Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 is now expected to nab around $23M+ while Universal/Blumhouse’s horror flick Unfriended as expected had a Saturday night drop (the way genre usually does) and could have a three-day of anywhere between $15.8M and $16.5M depending on what tomorrow brings. Here’s what the chart looks like now for the Top Five:
1). Furious 7 (UNI), 3,964 theaters (-58%) / $8.3M Fri. / $12.8M Sat. (+52%) / 3-day cume: $28.7M / Total cume: $294M/ Wk 3
2). Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 (SONY), 3,633 theaters / $7.3M Fri. / $9.8M Sat. (+34% to 37%) / 3-day cume: $22.5M to $23.5M / Wk 1
3). Unfriended (UNI), 2,739 theaters / $6.7M to $6.8M Fri. / $5.9M to $6.2M Sat. (-10% to 12%) / 3-day cume: $15.8M to $16.5M / Wk 1
4). Home (FOX/DW), 3,488 theaters (-215) / $2.4M Fri. / $4.8M Sat. (+96%) / 3-day cume: $9.8M to $10M / Total cume: $142M+ / Wk 4
5). The Longest Ride (FOX), 3,371 theaters (+5) / $2.4M Fri. / $2.9M Sat. (+19%) / 3-day cume: $6.8M (-48%) / Total cume: $23.5M / Wk 2
UPDATED, Saturday, 7:13 AM: Furious 7 raced in with an estimated Friday gross of $8.28M to $8.4M on a three-day trajectory of what looks like $26M to $28M for Universal. The Vin Diesel-driven ensemble has paid off extremely well for the studio, which seems to be the only one in town who are opening their sequels higher than the original this year. Helluva marketing and distribution team there.
Meanwhile, Sony’s sequel to Paul Blart Mall Cop bagged $7.3M yesterday. Estimates have this Kevin James laffer heading anywhere to $22.8M to $23.6M when malls close on Sunday which was on the high end of estimates on Wednesday and welcome news for the Culver City-based studio. Also welcome news for James as its his best opening for a film that he has shouldered in five years since Zookeeper which opened to $20M+ in 2011. Universal and Blumhouse’s Unfriended should drop today as most of these horror films are Friday front loaded. With a little under $7M yesterday, this social media scarefest could end the weekend around $16.5M.
The last newcomer is Disneynatures’ Monkey Kingdom which should get a slight boost today from family audiences. Yesterday, it swung in with $1.5M on its way to around $4.7M for the weekend. This film is playing just like Bears which opened last year with a Friday of $1.34M and ended its opening weekend with $4.7M.
Fox’s The Longest Ride saddled up on Friday with $2.4M on its way to a $6.9M second weekend. The total cume this weekend for the film based on a Nicholas Sparks novel will be roughly $23.6M. It is dropping about 47% which is stronger than many expected.
Ex Machina from A24 is one of the gems in the bunch this weekend. The sci-fi thriller from writer/director Alex Garland expanded this weekend to take $281K on 39 runs for a per screen average of around $20K to $22K, depending how the weekend plays out. It moved up a couple of notches from last night from No. 15 to No. 13. It opens wide next weekend.
The chart follows:
1). Furious 7 (UNI), 3,964 theaters (-58%) / $8.28M to $8.4M Friday / 3-day cume: $26M to $28M / Total cume: $291M to $293.8M/ Wk 3
2). Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 (SONY), 3,633 theaters / $7.3M Friday / 3-day cume: $22.8M to $23.6M / Wk 1
3). Unfriended (UNI), 2,739 theaters / $6.7M to $6.8M Friday / 3-day cume: $16.5M / Wk 1
4). Home (FOX/DW), 3,488 theaters (-215) / $2.4M Friday / 3-day cume: $9M to $10M / Total cume: $141.6M to $142M+ / Wk 4
5). The Longest Ride (FOX), 3,371 theaters (+5) / $2.4M Fri. / 3-day cume: $6.9M (-47%) / Total cume: $23.6M / Wk 2
6). Monkey Kingdom (DIS), 2,012 theaters / $1.5M Fri. / 3-day cume: $4.7M / Wk 1
7). Get Hard (WB), 2,655 theaters (-477) / $1.4M Friday / 3-day cume: $4.6M / Total cume: $78M+ / Wk 4
8). Woman in Gold (TWC), 2011 theaters (+507) / $1.3M Friday / 3-day cume: $4.25M / Total cume: $15.58M / Wk 3
9/10). Cinderella (DIS), 2,414 theaters (-611) / $1M Friday / 3-day cume: $3.8M to $4.1M / Total cume: $186M+ / Wk 6
Insurgent (LG), 2,542 theaters (-576) / $1.2M Friday / 3-day cume: $4M / Total cume: $120M+ / Wk 5
15). Ex Machina (A24), 39 theaters (+35) / $281K Fri. / 3-day cume: $780K to $890K / Per screen: $20K to $22K / Total cume: $1M+ / Wk 2
Amanda N’Duka contributed to this report.
PREVIOUSLY, Friday, 11: 20 PM: After three weekends in release Furious 7 is still No. 1 with a Friday box office haul of about $8M on a trek to a possible three-day weekend of $26.8M to $27.2M for Universal which is celebrating today its first ever $1B worldwide box office on a picture. That will put its domestic cume at around $292.6M. Meanwhile, Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 is, as expected, the No. 2 movie of the weekend, opening to a strong $7M Friday for a better than anticipated $22.5M weekend for Sony. And after a week of being re-victimized all over again, I’m sure it is a little bit of welcome news for the studio. Hang in there, guys. It received a B- CinemaScore.
The other newbies, Universal/Blumhouse’s Unfriended is likely to scare in around $6M to $7M today with late night horror crowds having come in late to bolster the gross. This R-rated, smaller-budgeted film will likely slack off a bit tomorrow (as most films in the genre do). So look for a weekend cume around $14M to $16M. Like most of these horror films, it ended up with C CinemaScore.
Disneynatures’ Monkey Kingdom — with a nice A- CinemaScore — should open in the sixth slot behind Home and the second weekend of the Nicholas Sparks-based film The Longest Ride (which is holding strong with only about a 47% dip). It has, of course, that Scott Eastwood factor. Monkey Kingdom is coming in, as anticipated earlier in the week, to around $4.6M.
The other film that we told you that we would follow throughout this weekend is A24’s surprise sci-fi hit Ex Machina which expanded into 39 runs and is still having the best per screen average of the Top 20 with an esimated $15K+. That’s how they look tonight with numbers changing likely in the AM. Here’s the chart:
Amanda N’Duka contributed to this report.
1). Furious 7 (UNI), 3,964 theaters (-58%) / $8M Friday / 3-day cume: $26.8M to $27.2M / Total cume: $292.2 to $292.6M/ Wk 3
2). Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 (SONY), 3,633 theaters / $7M Friday / 3-day cume: $22M+ / Wk 1
3). Unfriended (UNI), 2,739 theaters / $6M to $7M Friday / 3-day cume: $14M to $16M / Wk 1
4). Home (FOX/DW), 3,488 theaters (-215) / $2.25M Friday / 3-day cume: $9.3M / Total cume: $141.6M / Wk 4
5). The Longest Ride (FOX), 3,371 theaters (+5) / $2.4M Fri. / 3-day cume: $6.9M (-47%) / Total cume: $23.6M / Wk 2
6). Monkey Kingdom (DIS), 2,012 theaters / $1.5M Fri. / 3-day cume: $4.6M / Wk 1
7). Get Hard (WB), 2,655 theaters (-477) / $1.35M Friday / 3-day cume: $4.4M / Total cume: $77.9M / Wk 4
8). Woman in Gold (TWC), 2011 theaters (+507) / $1.3M Friday / 3-day cume: $4M+ / Total cume: $15.5M / Wk 3
9/10). Cinderella (DIS), 2,414 theaters (-611) / $1M Friday / 3-day cume: $3.8M to $4M / Total cume: $186.6M / Wk 6
Insurgent (LG), 2,542 theaters (-576) / $1.15M Friday / 3-day cume: $3.8M / Total cume: $120.3M / Wk 5
15). Ex Machina (A24), 39 theaters (+35) / $210K Fri. / 3-day cume: $621K / Per screen: $15,912 / Total cume: $948K / Wk 2
Looks as if Cindy will not reach $200 million domestically.
Yeah, it had surprisingly weak legs. I thought it was delightful but several relatives, who took their little daughters to the movie, said kids liked it only OK. Frozen it wasn’t (for them). In fact, they were disappointed that Frozen short wasn’t the movie.
This is purely anecdotal so no conclusions can be drawn about why it wasn’t a legs monster that reviews indicated it might have become.
I think people were expecting Cinderella to perform the way Malefiecent (I cannot spell that, sorry) did last year, except it performed similar to Into the Woods. Cinderella did well considering it did not have A list stars (Cate Blanchett was the biggest name but she has the critical raves but her name doesn’t open movies) and it was not in 3D. I saw it with my children two times and we loved it. But I do think the parental deaths might have been too much for kids under 5 and this movie was not bringing in the boys, unless they were coming with their sisters. Both times I went the audience clapped for it at the end. It was a movie, that I feel, should have done Furious 7 money, but I don’t think it was meant to. It’s worldwide gross is very good, I think 436 million as of last weekend and it has not opened in Japan yet.
I think the fact that Beauty and the Beast is going to be in 3D and they are making sure to include the talking household items and giving them well known actors to be the voices of them, that will probably help the box office. The original Cinderella animation focused more on the mice and cat then the actual human characters and this one was reverse (and better for it, in my opinion, but it might have done better with a half/half balance and including some of the notable songs—especially since Lily James has a fantastic singing voice).
how is a 47% dip for The Longest Yard considered “holding strong”? A strong hold would be 40% or less, especially for a movie that skews a little older, and whose audience doesn’t rush out the first weekend.
Mall cop was great. K James
is hilarious.
Double cap from MallCop2/Unfriended is hilarious. Feels like it is from the same movie.
Ha,ha, true. It’s great.
Kevin James should go to the bank, withdraw 24 million, find everyone who sat through his movie and give them their money back. He should be ashamed for releasing it. I’ve seen bad movies, this doesn’t even rate as a movie and there were no good intentions going into it. It was a pure money play, which happens all the time, but he didn’t even try.
It’s not that he made a bad movie, or one that wasn’t particularly funny, Adam Sandler and Vince Vaughen now make livings doing that, but there was absolutely no script and no funny bits at all. He basically said if I can throw 90 minutes of film together and put Blart in the title, I’ll make some money. It was excruciating. I blame myself for going, I knew it would be stupid, but I thought there would be some funny bits; James is a funny guy. There were none and because he is a funny guy, it is all the more egregious. He put no effort into it, zero. I wouldn’t spend another dime to see anything this guy does the rest of his life.
I just saw Woman in Gold and I must say it wasn’t bad. And Ryan Reynolds was much better than the snotty New York Times reviewer said he was
Yes, he was. I am having a lot of fun with reviews in rotten tomatoes. Reynolds was criticized essentially for ‘screaming goy’. I am amused to see that some people think Jews are an ethnic group, i.e. with distinctive physical traits. I suppose it would have been better if he had had dark skin, an aquiline nose, and curly black hair. I even read that Mirren was OK because she is of Russian origin and Russians and Jews are somewhat similar. Jesus. Some times I cannot believe I am reading such crap.
No other promotional or default pic for Unfriended? Its always that stupid fake terrified chick?
Reblogged this on xHibit Magazine Network.
What Scott Eastwood factor?
I was just about to make that very comment – seriously, what is the writer talking about?
I was wondering the same thing.
Reblogged this on bloomthoughts.
Seriously, who in their right mind would waste their money on Paul Blart?
John L. Sullivan: There’s a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that that’s all some people have? It isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan.
…and a little bit of sex.
To everyone who went to see Mall Cop 2: we get the movies we deserve. Support this garbage and we’ll be fed more of it.
This comment is upsetting to me, because it’s clear *somebody* went out and saw UNFRIENDED. Nobody deserves three to five new horror movies just like it.
At least Unfriended got good reviews from respectable sources. Bart has a zero on RT.
It Follows had great reviews too but it stunk
A lot of this was about the ratings in my opinion. Younger kids that wanted to see Unfriended this weekend had to settle for Mall Cop 2 when they couldn’t get into Unfriended. Just in my own little world I know of one group of 8 and another group of 6 that could not get in to see Unfriended and saw Mall Cop 2 instead. Not that they didn’t probably enjoy the goofiness of Mall Cop but Unfriended was their first choice. Wondering how many times that might have happened this weekend?
If this upsets you then you need to get a job and a life.
Social media buzz proved worthless as usual – Unfriended didn’t break out even though several big sites/trades predicted big things solely because of social media chatter.
They’re going to have to get more sophisticated in evaluating ‘social media chatter’. Check for grammar, punctuation, spelling, followers, interests, and other socioeconomic signals before making assumptions about buying power. This isn’t 2010 – people are posting updates to Facebook from cellphones in prison, and a huge number of Tweets are unreadable (spellcheck seems to be the origin of the slang term ‘ratchet’ meaning ‘wretched’).
Furious was long but I didn’t want it to end. Great stunts.
I wish that all the people that went to see unfriended would go see the superior IT FOLLOWS
Monkey kingdom was great, wish people would go out and see these movie on opening weekend and give a little back to this beautiful world and its creatures.
Monkey kingdom made a little less than the othed
Disney natures film. Furious 7 is going for its fourth lap until avengers age of ultron.
I saw monkey kingdom and paul blart 2 on,saturday
April 18th.
“Cinderella” is just not good. Nothing about it worked. It should have been light and frothy. It seemed like a defanged Tim Burton movie and not just because of Helena Bonham Carter. It was also, surprisingly, not particularly good looking. I don’t know how you screw up using Cate Blanchett in anything but somehow this movie did. It was as magical as a lead balloon. Preconceived expectations and familiarity with the tale got it as far as it got. I’m not sure Disney’s plan to do live action versions of beloved animation classics is a good idea at all. They’ll all fail in comparison won’t they? And then stall at the box office when word-of-mouth kicks in in the gap in between? Surely that’s what happened here. But I suppose in the gap in-between there are tax advantages to the profit-and-loss statement of an under-performing big budget movie then becoming product to be pushed into a DVD player.
Deadline gives a shout out to Kevin James for tirelessly promoting the film. Huh? What else does he have to do? His career and millions of dollars are on the line? Do you really think going on talk shows and shilling his brain-dead piece of crap is harder work than the grips and teamsters who work 14 hours a day for a hundredth of his pay. Sheesh!
Can’t believe ten years later, Disney is still riding on the coattails of March of the Penguins.