The Longest Ride Falls Way Short of Furious 7’s Second Weekend

When you have a box office record-setting juggernaut like Universal Pictures’ Furious 7 playing in theaters, there isn’t a lot of room for a new movie to make much of mark, which is why the only new movie in wide release, the Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Longest Ride, starring Scott Eastwood and Britt Robertson, didn’t stand much of a chance its opening weekend.

Even with a 59% drop, Furious 7, which reunites Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Jordana Brewster, and Ludacris, joined by Jason Statham, Kurt Russell and more, held up relatively well with a second weekend estimated take of $60.5 million. Despite the larger drop, it beat last year’s Captain America: the Winter Soldier‘s second weekend by nearly $20 million, and that second weekend gross is more than all but five movies have grossed in the month of April. With that, Furious 7‘s domestic gross crosses the $250 million mark, making it the biggest movie in the “Fast and Furious” franchise after just ten days.

Globally, Furious 7 has now grossed over $800 million in just 12 days, which has to be some sort of record–which will likely get obliterated by Avengers: Age of Ultron by month’s end–but it has reached $548 million internationally, remaining the #1 movie in the 67 territories in which it’s released. $195 million of that amount was grossed this very weekend, with China opening the movie on Sunday to the tune of $68.6 million (estimated). Besides having the widest release of a movie in the country, that’s also the biggest attendance for a movie in China, grossing more than Transformers: Age of Extinction in its opening day. Just for some perspective, they estimated that 1.3 million in China saw Furious 7 in a single day. Russia also opened at #1 with $15 million on 1,182 screens, which is a huge number for what’s becoming one of the top movie markets alongside China.

Furious 7 added another $14 million in IMAX screenings this weekend to bring its global IMAX take to $41.5 million with China’s IMAX opening day being estimated at $5 million, which would top the opening day IMAX record for Transformers: Age of Extinction in that country.

DreamWorks Animation’s latest animated hit Home (20th Century Fox), featuring the voices of Jim Parsons and Rihanna, held on to second place with a minimal drop of 30% as it added another $19 million to its domestic total of $129.6 million in three weeks.  

That meant that 20th Century Fox’s The Longest Ride, co-starring Alan Alda and Jack Huston, had to settle for third place with an estimated opening weekend of $13.5 million in 3,364 theaters or $4,013 theaters, putting it on par with the openings for previous Nicholas Sparks movies The Notebook and Nights in Rodanthe. Those went on to gross $81 million and $42 million, respectively, but even with “A” CinemaScore, The Longest Ride will probably gross closer to the latter.

In its third weekend, Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart’s R-rated comedy Get Hard (Warner Bros.) took in $8.6 million, down just 34% in its third weekend, as it brought its total domestic gross to $71.2 million. It probably won’t make it to $100 million, but it’s still a strong hit for the duo.

Walt Disney Pictures’ Cinderella added another $7.2 million to take fifth place, down 29% from last weekend, as it brought its domestic gross to $181 million. Internationally, it grossed another $12.6 million to bring its global box office gross to $436.8 million after crossing the $400 million mark earlier this week.

Summit Entertainment’s Veronica Roth adaptation The Divergent Series: Insurgent also held its ground in its fourth weekend with $6.8 million, down just 32% from last weekend, as it brought its domestic gross to just under $115 million. That’s still roughly $9 million behind where the original movie Divergent was at after four weeks, but it’s also just crossed the $250 million mark globally, so it’s ultimately going to make more money worldwide.

David Robert MItchell’s horror film It Follows (RADiUS-TWC) dropped to eighth place with roughly $2 million and $11.8 million grossed so far, making it RADiUS’ highest-grossing release to date.

The WWII drama Woman in Gold (The Weinstein Company), starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds, expanded nationwide into over 1,500 theaters after a solid Easter opening weekend. It grossed an estimated $5.9 million this weekend which basically kept it in seventh place. it has grossed $9.3 million so far.

The Al Pacino comedy Danny Collins from newcomer Bleecker Street, co-starring Jennifer Garner, Bobby Cannavale and Christopher Plummer, expanded nationwide into over 700 theaters, which helped it break into the Top 10 at #9 with $1.6 million, or $2,241 per theater.

Expanding into 246 theaters in its third weekend, Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young (A24), starring Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts, grossed $1.4 million or $5,610 per location which was enough to move it into the Top 10 as well. One would expect that A24 is going to expand it even wider next Friday, although its chances of remaining in the Top 10 are slim.

The gross of the Top 10 movies was down slightly from last year when the second weekend of Captain America: The Winter Soldier was joined by the animated sequel Rio 2, the horror film Oculus and Kevin Costner’s Draft Day, which made up for this weekend’s weaker opener.

Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller Ex Machina (A24), starring Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson and Alicia Vikander, opened in four theaters in New York and L.A. where it grossed $250,000, an impressive $62,500 per venue, which bodes well for its expansion over the course of the month.

French auteur Olivier Assayas’ latest, Clouds of Sils Maria (IFC Films), starring Juliet Binoche, Kristen Stewart and Chloe Grace Moretz, brought in $65,000 in three New York and L.A. theaters, or $22,000 per site, on par with Assayas’ last movie with Binoche, Summer Hours. 

Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut Lost River (Warner Bros.) tanked with just $17,000 in the same number of theaters and just $5,667 per site.