1. The Fate of the Furious- $38.6M/$163.5M
After breaking all sorts of records last week, The Fate of the Furious fell 60% in week two, but who cares because it already has $908M worldwide. This is after two weeks, people. And you wonder why Universal is already moving forward with a spinoff starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. There's simply no way they are letting this franchise die, because it's such an anomaly. We are way past the point where others' sell-by date would have past and talk of reboots begun.
2. The Boss Baby- $12.7M/$136.9M
3. Beauty and the Beast- $9.9M/$471M
4. Born in China- $5.1M
It was a lousy week for new releases, which is why DisneyNature's latest animal doc, Born in China, managed to best them all with only $5.1M. This one follows various families of animals in China, with John Krasinski providing the voice narration. These movies all do about the same amount of business in the opening week, which is usually on Earth Day weekend.
5. Going in Style- $5M/$31.7M
6. Smurfs: The Lost Village- $4.85M/$33.3M
7. Unforgettable (review)- $4.8M
Looking back at the numbers for other schlock domestic thrillers, the $4.8M debut for Unforgettable is a shock. No Good Deed opened with a strong $24M in 2014 on the way to $54M overall; Beyonce slugged it out with Ali Larter in Obsessed to the tune of $28M towards a $68M haul. On the lower end of the spectrum, Regina Hall's When the Bough Breaks at least hit double figures with $14. So that makes you wonder what kept audiences away this time, with the supposed star power of Rosario Dawson and Katherine Heigl duking it out. The only guess I have is the utter contempt some viewers seem to have towards Heigl, who is basically playing the antithesis of the characters she played in all of those awful rom-coms. It's worth noting those movies which everyone says they hated, tended to make a lot of money. Somebody's lyin'.
8. Gifted- $4.5M/$10.7M
9. The Promise (review)- $4M
Bad buzz has been circling the Armenian genocide drama The Promise for a while now. Not because the film, which boasts the star wattage of Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale, is particularly bad, but because the $100M budget was looking very unlikely to be recouped. The film has also been the target of a smear campaign led by deniers of the genocide, who have made it a point to give it lower ratings on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes before it ever opened. The late Kirk Kerkorian of MGM put up the vast majority of the money to produce the project just to finally get a story out there about what happened to the Armenians, with the promise that any profits would be donated to charitable organizations. Obviously, they'd much rather have $100M than $4M.
10. The Lost City of Z (review)- $2.1M/$2.2M
Somebody pass Netflix a note to watch how Amazon Studios does business. Amazon has a streaming run for James Gray's sweeping adventure The Lost City of Z, which stars Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, and Tom Holland. That's a starry cast worthy of the big screen and they got a theatrical run to go with it, earning $2.2M over a couple of weeks at only 614 sites. That's not going to tear the house down or anything, but it isn't bad, and those who may not be able to see it in theaters will be more likely to seek it out online.
The most disappointing news is A24's Free Fire (review), Ben Wheatley's shoot 'em up which hit nothing but air this weekend. Despite being led by Brie Larson, Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer and others, plus a slew of positive reviews, it only opened with $1M in 1,039 theaters for a $972 average. Ouch. It's still likely to be a target for fans of Wheatley, and will probably reach cult status before too long. Definitely go check it out while you can.
