The other studios steered clear of Universal’s ‘The Fate of the Furious’ allowing it to reign at #1 for the second weekend in a row. And it’s likely to stay on top next week as well, as little else is opening. In fact, the Top Five remained nearly identical to last weekend’s.
It’s no wonder that Universal is moving forward with a ‘Furious’ spin-off starring Dwayne Johnson, as Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham, who plays Decker Shaw. The studio has already stated that there will only be two additional ‘Furious’ flicks, but with these making so much money, it only makes sense to try broadening their reach with other connected films. Johnson joined the brand in ‘Fast Five’ while Statham debuted in ‘Fast & Furious 6’.
The only new picture to break through was Disney’s panda documentary ‘Born In China’, which claimed the #4 position with a modest $5M.
Here is the Top Five:
- The Fate of the Furious (Universal) – $38M
- The Boss Baby (20th Century Fox/Dreamworks) – $13M
- Beauty and the Beast (Disney) – $9.9M
- Born In China (Disney) – $5M+
- Going In Style (Warner Brothers/Village Roadshow) – $5M
‘Going In Style’ is doing steady business, being marketed to the over 50 crowd. That audience doesn’t flock to theaters on opening weekend, and word of mouth on this pic has been positive, so the seniors are trickling at their leisure.
Glorified Lifetime movie, ‘Unforgettable’ cost $12M to make, but its paltry $4.7M opening (in sixth place) may mean that Warner Brothers will actually lose money on this low budget thriller.
Performing even worse was ‘Phoenix Forgotten’ a found-footage UFO film that was partially produced by Ridley Scott. This ‘Blair Witch’-esque sci-fi thriller cost only $3M to make, but only generated $1.7M on its opening weekend. The opposite of ‘Going In Style’, ‘Phoenix Forgotten’ was targeted at the young hipster audience but if they hoped that buzz would help sell this movie, they’re probably going to be disappointed at the C- CinemaScore audiences gave this.
Like I said, the other major studios steered clear of ‘The Fate of the Furious’. Nothing big opened the week before, on the same weekend or after and it seems that they are even giving it a wide berth for a third weekend, as once again, not much is opening next weekend. The only film that could possibly give ‘Furious’ a run for its money is ‘The Circle’, a sci-fi thriller starring Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, John Boyega, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy”s Karen Gillan and Patton Oswalt and is the final film starring Bill Paxton before his death earlier this year.
Will it dethrone ‘Furious’? Unlikely, but check back to see how it does.
Source: Deadline
