Box Office Battle (April 3rd)

Fast & Furious races past the competition.

BY COLIN ENQUIST

Universals Pictures’ Fast & Furious raced past the previous April opening record with $72.5M, held by Anger Management which opened to $42.2 million in 2003. Reuniting Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Michelle Rodriguez helped the studio surpass the original The Fast and the Furious which grossed $40.1M on opening weekend. 2 Fast 2 Furious opened around $50M while the third film in the series, directed by Justin Lin who also directed the current film, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift brought in $24M. The three films have totalled around $333M worldwide, with Fast & Furious surpassing the entire gross of Tokyo Drift’s earnings.

Last weeks leader, Monsters vs. Aliens, dropped 43.5% in ticket sales during its second weekend. The 3D animated film took in $33M bringing the total around $105M. DreamWorks Animation made the film for $175M.

The Haunting in Connecticut had an enormous fall in ticket sales but still came in third, losing 58.5% from last week. Still managing to grab slightly over $9.5M, raising the total earnings around $37M for the two weeks it has been released.

Alex Proyas’ and Nicolas Cage’s sci-fi flick Knowing earned another $8.1M in fourth place and has reached a three week total of $58.2M.

Fifth place film I Love You, Man added another $7.9M. The Paul Rudd and Jason Segel comedy has made a total of $49.3M in three weeks.

Miramax Films’ Adventureland, the comedy about a recent college grad who ponders the future after taking a job at a local amusement park took in $6M on its opening weekend finished in sixth place. The film stars Jesse Eisenberg, Ryan Reynolds, Kristen Stewart, Martin Starr, Paige Howard, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Margarita Levieva. Gregg Motolla wrote and directed the film.

The bottom four films were Duplicity ($4.3M), Race to Witch Mountain ($3.3M), 12 Rounds ($2.3M) and Sunshine Cleaning ($1.8M).

Fast & Furious Breaks Several Records

Action flick see's big numbers for its opening day

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

Justin Lin's Fast & Furious (Universal) smashed several opening-day records with its Friday tally of $30.1 million, $2 million more than the previous record holder for a first-day opening prior to the summer, 2007's 300 (Warner).

The fourth film in the popular street racing franchise also had the best first-day opening for the month of April, besting the $15.4 million that Anger Management (Sony-Revolution) pulled in on its opening day in 2003.

Playing at 3,461 theatres in Canada and the U.S., Fast & Furious even outdid its franchise predecessors, as well as any film featuring its two stars, Vin Diesel (XXX) and Paul Walker (2 Fast 2 Furious).

As for its 3-day weekend toll, F&F is predicted to earn more than $60 million, which is not enough to topple Passion of the Christ's $83.8 million bow, the highest weekend gross for any film released before the summer.

Friday (April 3) also saw decent numbers for DreamWorks' Monsters vs. Aliens ($8.9 million) and The Haunting in Connecticut ($3.6 million), though Miramax's Adventureland failed to trigger much box office action on its opening day ($2.1 million), despite premiering in 1,862 venues.

Box Office Battle (March 27th)

Monsters vs. Aliens easily fights off the competition.

DreamWorks Animation's 3-D animated feature Monsters vs. Aliens grabs the number one spot on its opening weekend with $58.2M. While not playing in 3-D in approximately 7600 screens it opened on, the overall contribution from the 3-D screens was just over 56%. Being the largest 3-D launch ever, it bodes well for future films with a 3-D tag attached to them.

Second place would be taken by The Haunting in Connecticut which grossed $23M also on its first weekend of release. Its debut landed in the Top Ten of supernatural horror movies (according to BoxOfficeMojo), shy of the 2005 remake of The Amityville Horror. "Based on true events" was also the marketing scheme that Amityville had used.

Summit's sci-fi thriller Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage had another strong weekend despite not being able to hold onto No. 1. The film dropped 40% yet still finished third, grabbing $14.7M bringing the total up around $46.2. Across the ocean and into the international box office Knowing looks to have snatched another $9.8M placing itself at No. 1.

Last weeks big release I Love You Man finished fourth, the R-rated comedy from Paramount had a 29% decline but still pulling in $12.6M with a cumulative total of $37M. Duplicity, the Universal flick with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen dropped almost 50% bringing in $7.6M for fifth place and a total gross of $25.6M.

Race to Witch Mountain maintained a steady pace with $5.6M, the Disney film has grossed $53.3M so far. 12 Rounds opened this weekend as well to a first round knockout from the other 6 films ahead of it. Grossing only $5.3M, the WWE may want to reconsider the venture into movies with its wrestling stars.

Watchmen has continued to fade worldwide. Domestically falling 59% in its fourth weekend to an estimated $2.8M for a total of $103.3M. Overseas, it grossed $4.6M for the weekend, $68M overall internationally. The property is not quite well known outside the USA but it is still disappointing for Legendary Pictures and Paramount.

Rounding out the top ten is Taken, with a total $2.7M bringing its impressive take at $137M. The Last House on the Left fell 4 spots in the third week of release. Garnering $2.6M which brings the remakes total just above $28M.