UK had the hottest Easter weekend box office in 62 years, with Universal’s Fast Five grossing $8.8 million (£5,332,096) in its opening weekend – the biggest debut to date for the franchise — to become Britain’s No. 1 film. The UK opening was also the biggest of the Fast franchise to date, surpassing the £4.92M of the previous fourth installment Fast & Furious. Opening across 437 UK sites, it delivered an average of £12,201 per screen and beat competition from Warner Bros’ Arthur, starring Brit lead Russell Brand (in third place after Fox’s Rio in second). Elsewhere internationally, including previews (up to and including Sunday), Fast Five’s opening also fared well across Australia ($10.3M — the biggest-ever Universal opening) Korea ($3.4M) and New Zealand ($870K). Overall, up to and including Monday April 25, the film took a total of $27.8M across the four territories — and was No. 1 for all four markets. Like Rio and Thor recently, Fast Five opened first overseas. It releases in North America this Friday.

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.