The Fast and Furious franchise is among the most curious in cinema history. Over a decade ago, when the first film came out, no one could have foreseen half a dozen films and hundreds of millions in total box office. Yet here we stand looking back at yet another weekend where the number 1 film is both speedy and a little irate.
The film brought in an estimated $34.5 Million in its second weekend, which was just good enough to take first place. The film followed suit with its predecessors and took a nasty dip in weekend number 2, but the lack of a big film releasing during the slow, post Memorial Day weekend left enough room for Vin Diesel to have another weekend with the penthouse view.
The big winner of the weekend, however, is second place finisher Now You See Me. The magician/heist film boasted a way-above-expectation $28 Million, which proves once again that putting Morgan Freeman in you trailers is a fast track to box office windfall. The film has a loaded cast, and provided enough of a change of pace to carve out a really nice audience in the middle of blockbuster season.
Rounding out the top three is After Earth, another in a fast growing list of films determined to out John Carter John Carter. The total for the sci-fi actioner was a mere $27 Million, which comes in a few million short of the blockbuster Mason-Dixon line. M. Knight Shyamalan has once again failed to deliver an event film, this time missing with a flick that stars one of the most bankable sci-fi action stars ever.
The rest of the top ten is a who’s who of the last few weeks of the Box Office landscape, so no bother going back over that. Whats that you say? We haven’t written a box office post in weeks you say? You missed what happened because we are your only source for Box Office news and information you didn’t say but we can totally tell from the shiftiness of your face? Well why not do a quick run down of what happened while we were out:
–Iron Man 3 made a metric ton of money. Breaking records and coming out with the second highest opening weekend ever, second only to The Avengers, the comic book sequel proved that Tony Stark is big business.
–The Hangover 3 is not quite os big of a hit as its forebears, but it should still be a $100 Million dollar R-Rated comedy. That bar still means something, so not a total failure for the wolf pack’s end.
–Star Trek Into Darkness was well received, but the film didn’t connect the same way the first film did. Still its a positive addition to the rocky Star Trek cinematic library.
–The Great Gatsby had a huge opening weekend, but fell off rather quickly. Not to quickly to consider the film a fail, but quick enough to temper at least some of the positivity of the results.
And that is it for this week’s Box Office report. Next Week? The Internship, The Purge, and Much Ado About Nothing.
