Fast Five shot out of the gate with a weekend total of $83.6M. Obviously, we haven’t seen these type of totals all year, so it comes as no surprise that the film has broken all sorts of records. This is the best opening for the Fast and Furious franchise. It is also the largest opening of 2011, the largest opening in April, and the biggest opening that Universal has ever had.
The film played at over 3,600 locations in the United States, including a handful (243) of IMAX screens. It was well received by audiences, earning a CinemaScore of “A”, which should ensure continued brisk business in upcoming weeks.
Coming in far behind Fast Five was Rio, now in its third week in release. It made $14.4M, which was a decline of about 45%. Madea’s Big Happy Family took the third spot this weekend with $10.1M.
So what about the weekend’s other two new films? They were left in the dust, coming in 5th and 6th. Teenagers didn’t show up for Disney’s Prom. The film made about $5M, and had a paltry per screen average of $1832. Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs Evil fared even worse with $4.1M. That’s well below the $12M its predecessor made on its opening weekend.
Water for Elephants was number four, earning $9.4M. The film has made about $32M in two weeks. Dylan Dog: Dead of Night rolled out on 875 screens, but fell short of making one million dollars. Its take was $885,000
In limited release, Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams had an impressive per screen average of $25,400.
