Weekend Estimates: Big Decline, Big Win for Fate of the Furious

April 23, 2017

The Fate of the Furious

A decline of 61% compared to its opening weekend still leaves The Fate of the Furious the big winner at the box office this weekend, with the five new wide releases combined making less than half the $38.7 million it will earn on its second weekend, according to Universal’s weekend estimate. The film’s domestic gross will end the weekend at about $163.6 million. As of last night, it has reached $636.3 million internationally, and it should end the weekend with $752.4 million overseas, for a global total of $916 million as of Sunday. $327.4 million of that will have come from China, where Fate is clocking up another $67 million this weekend.

Back home, the weekend’s debutants are so weak that none of them come close to challenging The Boss Baby, which will be down 20% in its fourth weekend for $12.75 million, and $137 million to date, or Beauty and the Beast, which will pick up $9.973 million in its sixth weekend, for $471.1 million in total domestically. Beauty had its last major international opening this weekend, racking up $12.8 million in Japan, and stands at $629.2 million internationally, and $1,100.3 million worldwide—the 17th-highest of all time.

One relatively bright spark among the openers is Born in China, which will open in fourth place with $5.147 million or so. That’s the best weekend for a Disney Nature film since Chimpanzee’s $10.7 million in 2012.

Otherwise, things look pretty dismal. Unforgettable will launch with $4.805 million, and has the best theater average of the remaining four wide releases, although $1,988 is nothing to write home about. The Promise starts with $4.1 million from 2,251 theaters. Phoenix Forgotten starts out with $2 million from 1,633 for newcomer Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures. The fact that this is the first release for a new distributor is a major mitigating factor. It’s very unusual for a new player to get great box office results straight out the gate, and this shouldn’t be considered a disastrous start for ESMP. A24, meanwhile, has enough of a track record at this point that Free Fire’s $1.039 million from 1,070 theaters can fairly be called dismal.

The Lost City of Z is doing relatively better for Bleecker Street. We’re having trouble getting numbers from this distributor, but we’re hearing the film did about $2.1 million from 614 theaters this weekend, for an average around $3,500 per screen. That’s good enough for a top 10 finish.

In limited release, there are a couple of standouts. Citizen Jane: Battle for the City is estimated to be making $33,760 this weekend in two theaters for IFC Films; Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent opens with an estimated $24,068 from two venues for The Orchard.

- Weekend estimates


- Biggest 6th weekends

- Fate of the Furious comparison chart
- The Boss Baby comparison chart
- Beauty and the Beast comparison chart

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, The Lost City of Z, The Boss Baby, Unforgettable, Free Fire, Beauty and the Beast, The Fate of the Furious, The Promise, Born in China, Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent, Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, Phoenix Forgotten