$145 million. $127 million. $63 million. You’d think after severely shrinking grosses for each film in the franchise, the “Fast And Furious” series would be dead in the water. $72.5 million worth of ticket buyers evidently disagree, giving “Fast And Furious” the year’s biggest opening. Moviegoers have always been fond of car films, so despite diminishing returns, most pegged this installment, bringing back Vin Diesel and Paul Walker for the first time since the first film, as a big earner. Still, a $30 million Friday was as unprecedented as a moron like Roger Friedman learning how to use a torrent. Welcome back to the A-List, Vin Diesel. We need more possibly closeted, D&D-playing action stars.
Last week’s number one, “Monsters Vs. Aliens” logged in at #2 with $33.5 million, bringing its total to $105.7 after ten days of release- not a great second weekend hold for a film that was touted as an event, and with next week featuring “Hannah Montana: The Movie” and “Dragonball: Evolution” “MvA” has an uphill climb to avoid being looked at as a disappointment. Hollywood’s got a lot riding on 3D technology as the answer to piracy and declining moviegoing viewership, so if it doesn’t get to at least $180 mil. domestic, expect a lot of panic articles in the trades about studio profits dropping to only eleventy billion dollars per year.
“The Haunting In Connecticut” took a tremendous fall into the #3 spot, losing nearly 60% of its audience, but at $37 million after only two weekends, Lionsgate has to be happy about their investment. At #4 and #5 were “Knowing” and “I Love You Man” with $8.1 mil. and $7.9 mil. respectively- “Man” has been showing the legs to suggest it will lap “Knowing” next week. Debuting weakly at #6 was the critically-lauded “Adventureland,” which no doubt confused audiences with its ads mixing the serious period re-creation, the wacky appeal of older costars Bill Hader and Kristin Wiig, and the connection to “Superbad.” Not smart, guys.
1. Hot Wheels: The Movie Part IV- $72.5 million
2. Monsters Vs. Aliens- $33.5 million
3. The Haunting In Connecticut- $9.6 million
4. Knowing- $8.1 million
5. Proto-Apatow Male Bonding- $7.9 million
6. Adventureland- $6 million
7. Duplicity- $4.3 million
8. Race To Witch Mountain- $3.4 million
9. 12 Rounds- $2.3 million
10. Sunshine Cleaning- $1.9 million
