As the only wide release hitting theaters “Furious 7” was already in a great spot, add in the fact that it’s a very successful franchise anyway and it was basically unstoppable. “Furious 7” ended up opening at a franchise high, 47% higher than the 6th installment, of $143 million.
Now just because it made money doesn’t mean it’s good, but it just so happens to be. Our reviewer loved it, and it’s basically been said that it’s accomplishes what Michael Bay has been failing to do his entire career.
“Get Hard” plummeted almost 70%. That’s bad, real bad. Maybe people are getting Kevin Hart fatigue, because that guy is in everything. “Home,” “Cinderella,” and “Insurgent” all fell at a normal rate, and if it weren’t for “Furious 7” having such a massive opening “Cinderella” would have hung on to its Top Grosser of 2015 title a little longer, but currently it only has a $20 million lead.
| Rank | Title | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Total Gross | Week # | |||||
| 1 | Furious 7 | Uni. | $143,623,000 | – | $143,623,000 | 1 | |||||
| 2 | Home (2015) | Fox | $27,400,000 | -47.4% | $95,621,000 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | Get Hard | WB | $12,925,000 | -61.8% | $57,004,000 | 2 | |||||
| 4 | Cinderella (2015) | BV | $10,289,000 | -39.6% | $167,251,000 | 4 | |||||
| 5 | The Divergent Series: Insurgent | LG/S | $10,000,000 | -53.6% | $103,385,000 | 3 | |||||
Next week only has a new Nicholas Sparks film in wide release so don’t expect much.
A quick note on budgets and dollar figures:
Films making back their budgets is a good sign, but that is just the money to film. It doesn’t include distribution and marketing. Marketing can cost as much as a film. That big Superbowl spot is spendy. So take that into account when judging a film’s success. Hitting $100 million isn’t the same as it once was.
All dollar amounts in the top 5 come from estimates based on ticket sales unless noted otherwise. Occasionally this article will be published when actual results come out, which is usually late Monday afternoon. For more about this and other ins and outs of movie tracking click here.