James Wan’s Furious 7 continued defending its position this weekend as the year’s first blockbuster as it earned $29.1 million, winning the box office for the third weekend in a row. The feature also widened its lead as the highest grossing film of 2015 to date, earning more than 2014’s fourth place finisher Captain America: The Winter Soldier in the process.
However, the film was joined by two newcomers in the top 10, as the comedy sequel Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 and the horror feature Unfriended finished in second and third place respectively. Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, the sequel to the 2009 Kevin James vehicle, took in $24 million, while Unfriended finished with $16 million to round out the top three. The two were joined in the top ten by fellow newcomer Monkey Kingdom, as the Disney documentary took in $4.7 million to finish in seventh place.
Last week’s second, third, and fourth place finishers all moved exactly two places down, as the Dreamworks feature Home ended up in fourth place with $10.3 million, while the Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Longest Ride rounded out the top five with $6.85 million, and the Kevin Hart-Will Ferrell comedy Get Hard slipped to sixth place with $4.83 million. The Kenneth Branagh feature Cinderella dropped from fifth to tenth place, barely making the chart with a total of $3.87 million. Despite expanding to more theatres, the Noah Baumbach feature While We’re Young dropped out of the top ten, as did Danny Collins and It Follows.
Among limited releases, the biggest opener was the Daniel Espinosa feature Child 44. The historical drama, which stars Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman, took in $600,000 in the 510 theatres it opened in, for a PSA of $1,176. The highest opening PSA of the weekend went to the Canadian drama Félix & Meira, which garnered $15,000 in the one theatre it played in. The Oscar-nominated Tangerines also opened in one theatre, earning $4,600 over the weekend, while the Michael Douglas-starring Beyond the Reach earned $30,000 for a PSA of 1,071 to go with its concurrent VOD release.
The top earners at the US box office for the weekend is as follows:
- Furious 7 — $29,056,000
- Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 — $24,000,000
- Unfriended — $16,023,000
- Home — $10,300,000
- The Longest Ride — $6,850,000
- Get Hard — $4,830,000
- Monkey Kingdom — $4,715,000
- Woman in Gold — $4,587,000
- The Divergent Series: Insurgent — $4,150,000
- Cinderella — $3,871,000