It was clear that Furious 7 would be huge, but not THIS HUGE. The latest installment of the blockbuster franchise pulled in an unbelievable $67.3 million on Friday, the 10th-biggest opening day ever, and the highest since The Hunger Games - Catching Fire a year and a half ago. As of now, I have no idea how it will play out. The Final Four and Easter Sunday will all cause the drops to be heavier on Saturday and Sunday than normal. I'm going with $146 million, which would be the 9th-biggest opening weekend in history.
With this kind-of opening, Furious 7 seems well-positioned to hold the top spot for the remainder of the month of April, should it not be incredibly front-loaded.
With Furious 7 dominating business, almost every other movie plummeted. With kids on Spring break, Home was off 28% to $11.3 million. That's slightly higher than How to Train Your Dragon's second Friday as well as The Croods, but the drop was a lot more than that movie's slim 9% Friday-to-Friday drop, as well as The Croods' 8% Friday-to-Friday drop. Home should end up with about $29 million for the frame.
Get Hard, on the other hand, couldn't quite hold it together in the face of Furious 7, off 61% to $5 million in third place. The Kevin Hart-Will Ferrell prison comedy should find its way to around $13 million for the frame.
Essentially tying for fourth place, March hits Cinderella and Insurgent earned $4.1 million, and $4 million, respectively. Finally finding its footing, the Disney remake was off just 15% from last Friday. It is playing virtually in line with Oz: The Great and Powerful through the same point, and a similar weekend multiplier would give Cinderella just over $11 million for the frame. Meanwhile, Insurgent should get over $10 million for the frame.
