By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
It was top gear as the debut of The Fate of the Furious left the pack eating dust with an estimated $100.1 million. It was the only egg opening wide in this year’s Easter roll. A couple of limited releases strived to get into the marketplace (and failed) including the animated Spark: A Space Tail, which grossed $108,000 and golfing origin tale Tommy’s Honour with $220,000.
Exclusive freshman saw an up-tempo start for biodoc Chasing Trane with $15,200 on a solo riff. Also strong were the political “what if” Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer that grossed $100,000 at five sites and a potent $114,000 bow for period adventure The Lost City of Z from four expeditions.
Among international day-and-dates, the only Indian import to register was Punjabi Manje Bistre with an impressive $544,000. In Québec, family drama C’est le coeur qui meurt en dernier had a solid debut of $89,600.
Revenues for the holiday topped $170 million and rose 18% from last weekend. It was a slight -4% decline from 2016 (not Easter weekend) when debuts of The Jungle Book and Barbershop: The Next Cut led with respective launches of $103.3 million and $20.2 million.
Prognostications for the eighth entry in The Fast and the Furious settled in with better than $100 million. Anything less was unthinkable for a series with followers that view it with similar devotion as Star Wars fans. In this instance the crowd was 58% male with 50% aged 25-years and older with 79% in the core 18-34 year-old corridor.
While the domestic performance of The Fate of the Furious was potent, its international launch provided a staggering estimate of $432 million from 63 international markets. It’s the studio’s biggest opener and when actual bean-counting concludes could set a new global record that’s currently held by Star Wars: The Force Awakens with $529 million. Its $190 million bow in China was a record for that nation and it also set all-time opening benchmarks in 16 additional territories. Other top-grossing markets included Mexico with $17.8 million, the UK at $17 million and Russia with $14 million.
| Weekend (estimates) April 14 – 16, 2017 | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % change * | Theaters | Cume |
| The Fate of the Furious | Uni | 100.1 (23,220) | NEW | 4310 | |
| The Boss Baby | Fox | 15.5 (4,140) | -41% | 3743 | 116.3 |
| Beauty and the Beast | BV | 13.7 (3,810) | -42% | 3592 | 454.7 |
| Smurfs: The Lost Village | Sony | 6.5 (1,810) | -51% | 3610 | 24.8 |
| Going in Style | WB | 6.1 (2,000) | -49% | 3076 | 23.2 |
| Gifted | Fox Searchlight | 3.1 (2,680) | 588% | 1146 | 4.4 |
| Get Out | Uni | 2.9 (2,030) | -29% | 1424 | 167.5 |
| Power Rangers | Lionsgate | 2.8 (1,300) | -54% | 2171 | 80.5 |
| The Case for Christ | Pure Flix | 2.7 (1,950) | -32% | 1386 | 8.4 |
| Kong: Skull Island | WB | 2.6 (1,310) | -52% | 2018 | 161.2 |
| Ghost in the Shell | Par | 2.4 (1,110) | -67% | 2135 | 37 |
| The Zookeeper’s Wife | Focus/Elevation | 2.0 (1,920) | -24% | 1057 | 10.6 |
| Logan | Fox | 1.9 (1,330) | -53% | 1415 | 221.6 |
| Your Name | FunImation | .71 (2,430) | -57% | 292 | 3.3 |
| The Shack | Lionsgate | .64 (610) | -41% | 1048 | 56.1 |
| Life | Sony | .61 (1,010) | -74% | 605 | 28.6 |
| Manje Bistre | White Hill | .54 (8,910) | 61 | 0.54 | |
| Colossal | Neon | .46 (4600) | 281% | 100 | 0.61 |
| The Lego Batman Movie | WB | .38 (1,110) | 2% | 344 | 173.8 |
| Their Finest | STX | .36 (6,880) | 371% | 52 | 0.47 |
| Split | Uni | .27 (2,100) | 295% | 128 | 137.8 |
| CHIPs | WB | .25 (630) | -82% | 393 | 17.9 |
| T2: Trainspotting | Sony | .23 (690) | -15% | 331 | 2 |
| Tommy’s Honor | Roadside Attractions | .22 (1,370) | NEW | 161 | 0.22 |
| John Wick: Chapter 2 | Lionsgate | .15 (720) | -3% | 208 | 91.7 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $165.80 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | 18% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | -4% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Frantz | Music Box | .13 (1,320) | -13% | 98 | 0.56 |
| The Lost City of Z | Bleecker Street | .11 (28,520) | 4 | 0.11 | |
| Spark: A Space Tail | Open Road | .11 (290) | 365 | 0.11 | |
| Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall … | Sony Classics | .10 (19,880) | 5 | 0.1 | |
| C’est le coeur qui meurt en dernier | Seville | 89,600 (3,200) | 28 | 0.09 | |
| Kedi | Oscilloscope | 84,600 (1,070) | -26% | 79 | 2.4 |
| Personal Shopper | IFC | 67,300 (790) | -50% | 85 | 1.1 |
| Begum Jaan | White Hill | 66,200 (1,840) | 36 | 0.07 | |
| Maudie | Mongrel | 56,500 (14,120) | 4 | 0.06 | |
| A Quiet Passion | Music Box | 44,300 (8,860) | 5 | 0.04 | |
| Mister | Nager | 42,800 (440) | 97 | 0.08 | |
| Power Paandi | CineGalaxy | 41,900 (1,820) | 23 | 0.04 | |
| The Devotion of Subject X | China Lion | 38,500 (1,830) | -74% | 21 | 0.66 |
| Chasing Trane | Abramorama | 15,200 (15,200) | 1 | 0.02 | |
| My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea | Gkids | 13,800 (4,600) | 3 | 0.01 | |
| Black Code | Mongrel | 10,900 (5,450) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| Little Boxes | FilmBuff | 4,300 (1,080) | 4 | 0.01 | |
| Tomorrow | Milky Way | 3,400 (1,130) | 3 | 0.01 | |
| Domestic Market Share (January 2 – April 13, 2017) | |||||
| Distributor (releases) | Box Office | Market Share | |||
| Universal (9) | 640.4 | 19.90% | |||
| Buena Vista (4) | 589.7 | 18.30% | |||
| 20th Century Fox (12) | 543.4 | 16.90% | |||
| Warner Bros. (11) | 425.5 | 13.20% | |||
| Lionsgate (10) | 357.5 | 11.10% | |||
| Paramount (10) | 189.3 | 5.90% | |||
| Sony (8) | 144.8 | 4.50% | |||
| Weinstein Co. (3) | 62.7 | 1.90% | |||
| Open Road (3) | 34.9 | 1.10% | |||
| CBS (2) | 32.6 | 1.00% | |||
| STX (4) | 29.1 | 0.90% | |||
| Focus (7) | 24.8 | 0.75% | |||
| A24 (2) | 19.1 | 0.60% | |||
| Roadside Attractions (2) | 17.5 | 0.55% | |||
| Fox Searchlight (4) | 16.3 | 0.50% | |||
| Other * (97) | 93.4 | 2.90% | |||
| 3221 | 100% | ||||
| * none greater than 0.35% | |||||
