While its popularity is baffling to many people, the Fast & Furious franchise keeps going from strength to strength, with the latest installment taking $83.6 million in its first three days. That far outstrips the $71 million of the previous movie, and marks the highest grossing opening ever for a Universal movie, the biggest April debut ever and the third biggest for any movie outside the official summer and Christmas seasons. It’s a very impressive achievement for a franchise many have dismissed and which is on its fifth installment.
The other new entries underperformed even the modest expectations those distributing had for them. Disney had hoped for a $7-$10 million opening for Prom, but in the end it only took $5 million. Luckily it only cost $9 million to produce, but the House Of Mouse did have some hope of creating a new franchise with the movie, which are now likely to have been dashed.
The other new movie in the top 10 was Hoodwinked Too!, which took only $4.1 million. The fact it came six years after the first film – which most people had forgotten about anyway – and had been mired in legal troubles over The Weinstein Company fiddling with the production probably didn’t help it. And while some had hoped Dylan Dog, starring Brandon Routh, would be a cult success, it only made it to 16th spot on the chart, with $885,000.
Take a look below for the top 10 at the US box office for the weekend on April 29th-May 1st.
Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
1 | Fast Five | $83.6 | $83.6 |
2 | Rio | $14.4 | $103.6 |
3 | Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family | $10.0 | $41.0 |
4 | Water For Elephants | $9.1 | $32.2 |
5 | Prom | $5.0 | $5.0 |
6 | Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil | $4.1 | $4.1 |
7 | Soul Surfer | $3.3 | $33.7 |
8 | Insidious | $2.6 | $48.3 |
9 | Hop | $2.5 | $105.2 |
10 | Source Code | $2.5 | $48.9 |