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SUNDAY AM: The heated-up domestic box office just got even hotter… The lesson is that Hollywood should never underestimate moviegoers’ tolerance for retread material. Even Universal knew when they announced a 4th installment of their worn-out street racing franchise that everyone else would say there was no life left. But they got the original 2001 cast together and made a true sequel that picks up the Fast & Furious story where it left off in The Fast And The Furious. (“New Model… Original Parts”.) The result was a jaw-dropping $30.5 million haul Friday and $24.7 million Saturday (only -19%) and estimated Sunday $17.3 from 3,461 theaters for an unexpectedly humongous opening weekend of $72.5M. (Which now includes the Thursday midnight showings of $1.8M.)
That’s a whopping 1/3 more than the studio thought possible, and now the biggest April opening ever by a mile (previous best was Anger Management‘s $42M in 2003) as well as the highest opening weekend of 2009 (besting Monsters v Aliens’ $59.3 million). Fast & Furious also had the franchise’s best opening weekend (2001′s The Fast And The Furious $40.1M, 2003′s 2 Fast 2 Furious $50.5M, 2006′s Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift $24M). It was also the best debut for a car-themed movie (passing Cars $60.1M). This just doesn’t happen like this, folks, even with a great marketing and distribution campaign supervised by Adam Fogelson: Hollywood is in shock.
What’s interesting is the movie that launched Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Michelle Rodriguez is now saving their careers since Vin and Paul have been in a succession of film flops, while Michelle’s arrests could have lost her the Lost gig. They were directed by Justin Lin, who helmed The Fast And The Furious threequel Tokyo Drift — which also was written by Fast & Furious scripter Chris Morgan. And producer Neal Moritz produced all four in the franchise.
Fast & Furious also opened day and date in 32 overseas markets, and it looks to have made in excess of $30.1M internationally, bigger than the openings of all the films in the Fast and Furious franchise. The film debuted No. 1 almost everywhere including Germany, Austria, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. So, from the first weekend in theaters, Fast & Furious had a worldwide gross of $102.6M.
The No. 2 film that was last week’s top pic, DreamWorks Animation’s Monsters v Aliens, hung on for $8.8 million Friday (down only 45% from a week ago) and $14.3 million Saturday. The 3-D toon playing in a total 4,109 venues took in as much as $33.5M this weekend for a fresh cume of $105.7M. In case you didn’t notice, that’s $1o5+M at the box office just between #1 and #2 — when last year’s total was $90M all in. Total FSS will be $150M, a staggering +75% from last year. (No wonder movie moguls don’t want anyone knowing how much their studios are raking in the dough in this financial recession. Hard to argue they’re having it as tough as everyone else, no?)
The other opener this weekend are Miramax’s teen comedy Adventureland which, hurt by its R rating, only made $6M this weekend from 1,862 venues. The question is whether the Twilight girls turned out for Kristin Stewart. And Overture Releasing widened put R-rated Sunshine Cleaning into 479 dates for #10 and $1.8 million and a new cume of $4.7M.
Here is Friday’s Top 10
1. Fast & Furious (Universal) OPENER [3,461] Wkd $71M
2. Monsters v Aliens (DWA/Par) Week 2 [4,109] Wkd $33.5M, Cume $105.7M
3. Haunting In Conn (LG) Week 3 [2,732] Wkd $9.5M, Cume $37.2M
4. Knowing (Summit) Week 3 [3,323] Wkd $8.1M, Cume $58.2M
5. I Love You, Man (DW/Par) Week 3 [2,829] Wkd $7.8M, Cume $49.2M
6. Adventureland (Miramax) OPENER [1,862] Wkd $6M
7. Duplicity (Universal) Week 3 [2,522] Wkd $4.3M, Cume $32.3M
8. Witch Mountain (Disney) Week 4 [2,825] Wkd $3.3M, Cume $58.3M
9. 12 Rounds (WWE/Fox) Week 2 [2,331] Wkd $2.3M, Cume $9M
10. Sunshine Cleaning (Overture) Week 4 [479] Wkd $1.8M, Cume $4.7M
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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WTF! TO ALL YOU IDIOTS OUT THERE GOING TO WATCH THIS MOVIE, THANKS FOR RUINING HOLLYWOOD. WE HAVE TO BOYCOTT STUPID ASS MOVIES LIKE THIS, OR THAT IS ALL THEY WILL MAKE.
THIS MOVIE CAN NOT COMPARE TO DARK NIGHT, LOST WORLD, TRANSFORMERS OR ANY OTHER TOP MOVIE.
Give credit where credit is due. This is a tremendous opening for ANY film. What makes these figures even more astonishing is the fact this is the fourth installment of what everyone thought was a finished franchise.
No one would have been surprised if it pulled $7.5 million. The actual result is nothing short of stunning.
Great job Adam! Amazing marketing.
As for “Adventureland,” watch for this pic to become HUGE in DVD-land.
What do you mean “WTF”? Just watch the Oscars and that alone should tell you why people will flock to a movie like F+F.
The people who write about bad about quality mindless movies need to get a life… I like serious movies with good acting just as much as the next person but Wow… Being able to enjoy different kinds of movies is what its all about…
WOW!!! Gotta’ hand it to the guys at uni and whoever put those trailers together. Very impressive way to remarket a tired series. Didn’t even know it was fast and furious till the middle and by then I was hooked. Good Job!
I agree with sentiment american, but seriously?? The Lost World?? Transformers??? Those are not top movies. In fact they are both awful movies.
Adventureland was great. But at the theater I went to (The Grove in Los Angeles), the high school kids where lining up for Fast and Furious.
American12345, your yelling diatribe would have made more sense if you left out Lost World and The Transformers from your idiocy tool bag. Transformers was pure trash. Are you Kurtzman or Orci?
The best reason to see this movie was another glimpse of Jordana Brewster
Besides being a homage to the legendary 1987 Buick Grand Nationals, the premise, settings, & people
are all iconically *AMERICAN*.
The mob-in-power in D.C. would never “get”
this movie, so don’t expect their lemming
lackeys to either.
For these 2 reasons, its doubling the prior #1 record
for April movies is no surprise, and is a concrete
harbinger of the *actual* minds & hearts of the USA.
I think beyond the nostalgia factor, what really sold this film was the teaser trailer that was running in theatres a couple of months back. An intense truck hijacking sequence that looked so cool before it revealed itself to be a trailer for F&F.
Saw the film last night and have to give them credit for actually focusing on the characters and making the film as much of a drama as as an action film. One might say there were actually a couple of dramatic scenes too many, which ended up producing some unintended laughter from the audience. But overall, it gave the audience exactly what it promised: sweet cars, great driving sequences, hot scantily-clad girls…and Paul, Vin and Jordanna with Special Guest Star Rodriguez thrown in.
ps. Carl Grey – what do you work for Andrew Rogers or something, hyping up Laz like that? Please note that, while Laz has produced decent performances in everything from Miracle at St. Ana to Stomp the Yard, no one outside of Paradigm knows who he is.
Of course this movie was going to do well. The 15 year old kids going to see it now were only 7 years old in 2001. They’ve been appropriately prepared with Grand Theft Auto video cames. In another 8 years they can release a new retread. Maybe include a Prius with 426 hemi.
Big Fan of 1st 3! Every time time they turn up on cable I can,t help to watch and relive all the Great Car Stuff that reminds me of all the Car Movies in the Early 1970′s.
oing Tonight and I’m predicting this movie will Gross over 83 for the Weekend!
The worst thing for ADVENTURELAND was how they plastered “From The Director of ‘Superbad’” and the movie’s comic elements all over it. This was, as Harold said, a pleasant COMING OF AGE film, not a raunchy teen comedy, and certainly could’ve been cut for a PG-13 because the movie actually has very little adult content in it.
It’s a terrific movie but I can’t help but think the way the picture was marketed was misleading, and really didn’t sell the film itself very well.
“This movie fits the popular, anti-tax ‘tea party’ throngs perfectly.”
Shhhhh! Don’t anyone tell him in the film there are people stealing gas and redistributing it among the poor.
I love crazy people.
“THIS MOVIE CAN NOT COMPARE TO DARK NIGHT, LOST WORLD, TRANSFORMERS OR ANY OTHER TOP MOVIE.”
Oh god. PLEASE Hollywood… PLEASE make 17,000 more Fast & Furious films rather than anymore Transformers or Lost Worlds. Thank you!
I’m not suprised by the opening of “Fast and Furious.” It was a good, action-packed movie. Put your brain on auto pilot and enjoy the movie. As far as “Adventureland” who cares. The trailer was awful and Jessie Eisenberg is the poor man’s Michael Cera. Greg Mattola had nothing to do with “Superbad’s” success. It was the Apatow brand, a really good script, and a perfect cast that made “Superbad” a hit.
American12345, you do realize that most people would say Transformers is as “stupid ass” as The Fast and the Furious franchise, right? And The Lost World got mixed reviews as well.
This year has been horrific so far so of course people are going to see a film from a franchise that they know is competent enough. Also, it’s a film that crosses racial divides: white, black, latino, Asian.
Rather than berate the mass audience for watching this film, maybe people could try to learn some lessons from it and producers could try to elevate the action genre in the future.
Now if Universal could just get rid of the NBC gang they would be all right.
Ditto the comments:
“Were they not selling enough lame ass cars to jocky cheesedicks that they had to take another dump on the screen?”
“Never underestimate the stupidity of the average moviegoer.”
And to the imbeciles who proudly say it’s comfort food to men, and count off the check list of ingredients to meet their high movie standards, you make men look like a massive bunch of morons. Also, “hot chicks,” as one erudite commenter wrote, are not some commodity to service your lame ass, lowbrow, pathetic, low IQ entertainment moron needs like some item on a grocery list. Men need to learn this. Idiots. Thanks for narrowing the already narrow possibility for good movies by guaranteeing more sequels from the crap movie diarrhea machine. Why don’t you improve yourselves and get a date rather than living vicariously through some sad movie.
What was the original prediction for F&F?
Why do people keep clinging to the fallacy that R rated pictures don’t do well? Friday the 13th anyone? I won’t waste time naming the others. While I’m sure the stats will sadly back up the PG-13 vs. R debate dollars-wise, I think it’s more of a case by case thing. If Alien 5 came out R rated tomorrow(assuming it was good), it would be huge.
As for why Adventureland, or any other film which is perceived to be good, hits or doesn’t is one of the great mysteries that everyone looks stupid analyzing because, as they saying goes, “nobody knows anything.”
But if we must offer explanation for this weekend, when you open a summer type blockbuster tentpole in the dead of spring of course it’s going to be huge and dwarf all others. Exactly why is the success of FAST AND FURIOUS a surprise to anyone? Original cast back in place and nobody thinks this will work? Hello?
The only real question is legs but F&F has a little breathing room before the guns of summer unload.
Adventureland should not be an R. Unless I blinked,there is no nudity…not even really bad language-yeah they smoke pot the whole time-so.. They should have added skin and sold it as a teenage sex comedy, or had it PG or PG13. And I really hope the powers that be don’t read into F&F and think vin is worth some huge bump.
Do we eat vegetables all the time? Sometimes we need sugar. Can’t wait for Vin on netflix….to celebrate I watched Tokyo Drift on on Demand today! I am not a jockey cheesestick but a demented old granny!!!
American12345, you’re a moron.
Go back into your art house and hide until the summer is over.