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APEX Hollywood Shortlist: Furious 7 Repeats Historic, High-Octane Victory Lap at Weekend B.O.

April 14, 2015  | Written by Tomas Romero

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Though some expected last week’s box office champ to downshift a bit in its second lap in theaters, Universal’s Furious 7 showed no signs of slowing down, bringing in another whopping $59.5M over the weekend. Generating the kind of rabid fanboy (and fangirl) furor usually reserved for sci-fi and comic book adaptations, Furious is also having a moment in the traditional media spotlight as well. You can’t turn on the TV or radio without spotting a “Furious family member” chatting up the film, Vin Diesel’s impromptu vocal tribute to his fallen friend Paul Walker at the MTV Movie Awards brought down the house, and several websites have now placed Furious 7 at the top of the list of movies that it is OK for men to cry at.

Internationally, Furious also set the opening day record in China where it raked in an unprecedented $68.8M on one day. In other words, Furious fever is here to stay, enjoy the ride.

Showing surprising staying power, Dreamwork’s animated smash Home continued to pull in the family crowd, holding steady in the number two slot with $18.5M. Rounding out the top three over the weekend with $13M was Fox’s big screen adaptation of hit maker Nicholas Sparks’ best-seller, The Longest Ride.

Starring an unusually large number of actors from second and third generation Hollywood families, Ride is top-lined by Clint Eastwood’s son, Scott Eastwood and features star turns from Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter Oona Chaplin and Angelica Huston’s nephew Jack Huston. Soon to be a household name in her own right — with a lead role in Disney’s hotly-anticipated George Clooney/Brad Bird Tomorrowland — is Eastwood’s love interest in the film, Britt Robertson.

Also opening in limited release was A24’s stylish sci-fi thriller Ex Machina which took in $250,000K in four theaters nationwide for a staggering $62,500K per screen average. The directorial debut of UK novelist/screenwriter Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later, Never Let Me Go), Machina stars indie scenesters Domhnall Gleeson (Frank) and Oliver Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) as computer techies grappling with weighty scientific and moral issues related to artificial intelligence at a weekend retreat in the woods with at least one, and possibly more, beautiful cyborgs in attendance. A midnight movie sensation at Austin’s recent South by Southwest festival, Machina is already generating off the chart buzz in art house circles and should prove to be yet another colorful feather in A24’s bountiful indie cap this season.

Complete Box Office Results – April 10 – 12, 2015