Praise Jeebus, the muscles won over the Easter long weekend, as The Fate Of The Furious, the latest film in the Fast and the Furious franchise (and the first since Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift that doesn’t feature Paul Walker) took in $10.07m in its opening week at the box office.
The film has done amazingly well internationally, earning $700m in its opening weekend across the globe. This earned the 8th film in the franchise the honour of the biggest worldwide debut ever, beating Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($569.4m) and Jurassic World ($417.2m).
It therefore took over from Beauty And The Beast, which made $3.02m at the box office this week, and now sits in no. 2, after being at no. 1 for the past 3 weeks. This week, Beauty And The Beast appeared on 449 screens, down from 558 screens last week. Total box office takings since its opening week is now past the $40m mark.
| # | Film Title | Distributor | Box Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS | UNIVERSAL | 10,072,760 |
| 2 | BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (LIVE ACTION) | WALT DISNEY | 3,020,355 |
| 3 | THE BOSS BABY | FOX/DREAMWORKS | 1,997,473 |
| 4 | THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE | WARNER BROS | 1,290,008 |
| 5 | SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE | SONY PICTURES | 803,021 |
| 6 | GHOST IN THE SHELL | PARAMOUNT | 515,805 |
| 7 | MANJE BISTRE | INDIES | 402,399 |
| 8 | DANCE ACADEMY | STUDIOCANAL | 286,332 |
| 9 | CHIPS | WARNER BROS | 185,856 |
| 10 | LOGAN | FOX | 180,648 |
Other changes in the top 5 spots on the box office ladder were affected by the long weekend. Last week’s 2nd place film, The Boss Baby, now sits at no. 3 week, and earned $1.99m. This meant an 18% decrease in earnings at the box office, but it still remains on 300 screens nationwide. Similarly, last week’s no. 3 film, The Lego Batman Movie, scooted down to no. 4 this week, and took in $1.29m.
Other movements include Ghost in the Shell which made $515k (previously at no. 4, now at no. 6) and Chips which made $185k (previously at no. 7, now at no. 9).
Logan is also hanging in at no. 10, where it was last week, and earning $180k this week.
This weekend sees the release of the new Morgan Freeman comedy, Going in Style, which should make an appearance in at least the top 10. The highly anticipated Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is due for release in the weekend before ANZAC Day.
All figures from The Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia and Box Office Mojo
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