Furious 7 can be counted on to easily scoop up a second weekend crown (only five more until it equals Avatar).
Here are the previous second weekend drops:
- Fast & Furious 6 – 63.9 percent
- Fast Five – 62.4 percent million
- Fast and Furious – 50 percent
So why am I going with only a 55 percent drop? Easy peezy, this is a franchise in ascension. There’s still momentum, and people might be seeing it twice. Secondly, no Easter or Final Four to compete against. It all adds up to a decent holdover (at least in the modern age). Add another $67.8 million to the coffers.
The only wide new release of the weekend is Nic Sparks’ The Longest Ride. I’m so happy I didn’t have to see this one. Generally these Sparkers open in the teens (and for the teens). I like a teen open here too, $14.9 million, which will only be good enough for a bronze medal. These beasts tend to earn less overseas too, though they cost nothing to make, and so keep on churning that lovely profit for sub-par work.
What the heck else should we predict? I guess the holdover for Home makes sense. At first blush the $188 million wordwide looks solid for a non-sequel animation, but then that $135 million production budget pops up. Thus, the sub-50 percent drops aren’t going to help all that much, so the nice 40 percent dip this weekend will only lead to $16.2 million being thrown in the profitless mix.
Lastly, I suppose we’ll look a Woman in Gold. I don’t know how anyone is going to get points here other than to be first, because the number is so low that you can’t be off by all that much. I think $1.8 million, though I can’t quite figure out the release schedule. If it gets wider than 400 theaters this weekend then all bets are off, especially as it’s clearly meant for an older audience (IE, less bleed).
Your turn, get your predictions in and share your thoughts in the comments!
SIDE NOTE: Some of the theater numbers below are estimates. We’ll have the actual counts in Sunday’s wrap-up article.
