1. Furious 7 (review here)- $143M
You've heard me say numerous times here on this site and elsewhere that Furious 7 is the top "homegrown" franchise in decades. There will be no greater evidence of that fact than the $384M worldwide debut for Furious 7. The $143M it took in domestically nearly matches the entire $144M theatrical run of 2001's The Fast & the Furious. It's crazy how big this franchise has become over the years, and obviously it isn't even close to slowing down. So for the record this is the biggest opening ever for the month of April, surpassing last year's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and it clearly zooms past Fifty Shades of Grey as the top opener of 2015. No surprises there. It ranks as the 9th largest domestic debut in history, just behind Spider-Man 3's $151M. And naturally it's the biggest opening weekend in the series' history, too. The $384M counts as the fourth biggest worldwide debut in history, just behind The Avengers, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. But look, those are just numbers. Let's talk about the fact this is the 7th film in a franchise that is 14 years old, and yet it's only getting stronger. This is unheard of no matter how you slice it. Granted, the death of Paul Walker made this even more of a "must see priority event" than it already was, but at the same time it will be interesting to see how his absence affects future movies. The stars are contracted through Fast & Furious 9 (!!!) but Furious 7 felt like a natural place to wrap things up for good. We'll see if that turns out to be the case.
2. Home- $27.4M/$95.6M
Dreamworks Animation needed a hit out of the star-studded family film, Home, and it appears they've got one. The film slipped 47% from last week but has earned $95M in only two weeks domestically, and $143M worldwide. Although the marketing push was modest, the $135M budget was anything but and Dreamworks has to be happy that the Rihanna-voiced feature seems to have connected with audiences.
3. Get Hard- $12.9M/$57M
The upside to the mediocre $57M two-week haul for the racially insensitive Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedy Get Hard is that it only cost $40M. Otherwise this is turning out to be a dud, and audiences are steering clear after a mountain of bad reviews. Of course it's not going to hurt Ferrell or Hart in the long run, but now we have proof that throwing two popular comedic stars together doesn't guarantee a damn thing.
4. Cinderella- $10.2M/$167.2M
5. The Divergent Series: Insurgent- $10M/$103.3M
6. It Follows- $2.4M/$8.5M
7. Woman in Gold (review here)- $2M/ 2.1M
Opening in only 258 locations this week was the Helen Mirren drama, Woman in Gold, about the true story of one woman's fight to reclaim family artwork stolen by the Nazis. The film actually opened on Wednesday and the reviews have been pretty mixed, but there's no denying the strength of the story or the potential for it as a crowd-pleaser. If it expands to more theaters we may see this one be a mid-sized hit geared towards older audiences.
8. Kingsman: The Secret Service- $1.7M/$122.2M
9. Do You Believe?- $1.5M/$9.8M
10. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel- $1M/$30M
