April ended with a whimper at the North American box office as two new movies opened in wide release, one not even getting into the Top 10, allowing Universal Pictures’ Furious 7 to dominate at the box office for a fourth weekend in a row.
Overseas was a different story as Marvel Studios’ mega-blockbuster sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron opened in 44 territories, #1 in all of them, to amass $201.2 million globally in 55% of the marketplace. 175 international IMAX theaters accounted for $10.4 million of that amount, an international IMAX record for a movie not opening in China, surpassing Interstellar‘s $7.2 million. Some of the top markets for Avengers: Age of Ultron included Korea with $28.2 million, the UK with $27.3 million, and Russia with $16.2 million.
Back in North America, Furious 7 ended its four-week run at #1 with $18.2 million, down just 38% from last weekend, as it crossed the $300 million mark domestically earlier in the week and now has grossed $320.5 million domestically, which is more than all but three 2014 releases. Internationally, the movie has become the fastest to gross a billion while becoming the highest-grossing movie in China ever with $323 million in just 15 days (compared to the four weeks it took to gross that same amount in North America). The worldwide total for Furious 7 has reached $1.322 billion, which is the fifth-highest ever, trailing just Avatar‘s #2.8 billion, Titanic‘s $2.2 billion, The Avengers‘ $1.5 billion and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2‘s $1.341 billion.
Kevin James’ comedy sequel Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 remained in second place domestically with $15.5 million, down just 35% from its opening weekend, as it brings its domestic gross to $44 million in ten days.
The top new opener was Summit Entertainment’s time-spanning period drama The Age of Adaline (Lionsgate), starring Blake Lively and Harrison Ford, which opened in 2,991 theaters and was able to bring in $13.4 million ($4,473 per theater) to take third place.
DreamWorks Animation’s animated film Home (20th Century Fox) remained in fourth place with a negligible 22% drop to gross $8.3 million in its fifth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $153.8 million. That’s not quite up to par with the amounts made by DWA’s previous spring releases, but it should have a pretty easy time with little family competition until the opening of Pixar Animation’s Inside Out in June.
Blumhouse Pictures’ latest low-budget horror movie Unfriended (Universal) took a massive 61% plunge in its second weekend, dropping to fifth place with $6.2 million and a ten-day gross of $25.2 million.
After a solid platform release, Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller Ex Machina (A24), starring Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson and Alicia Vikander, expanded nationwide into 1,255 theaters, A24’s widest release to date, and it managed to gross $5.4 million for sixth place with a solid 4,335 per theater. So far, it has grossed $6.9 million, making it the second-highest grossing movie for the distributor.
The Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Longest Ride (20th Century Fox) dropped to seventh place with $4.4 million and $30.4 million grossed so far, which will probably make it the second-lowest grossing Nicholas Sparks movie after last year’s The Best of Me.
The Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart comedy Get Hard (Warner Bros.) did something rare by actually moving up two notches from last week as it took eighth place with $3.9 million, down just 21% from last weekend. It has grossed $84 million domestically to date.
Disneynature’s sixth feature film Monkey Kingdom took ninth place with $3.5 million, down 22% from its opening weekend, as it has grossed $10.3 million to date.
The Helen Mirren-Ryan Reynolds drama Woman in Gold (The Weinstein Company) rounded out the Top 10 with $3.5 million, also with a negligible drop from last week. The film has earned $26.3 million in four weeks.
The Top 10 grossed an estimated $82.4 million, which was down $15 million from last year when Cameron Diaz’s The Other Woman dominated the last weekend of April with $25 million.
The faith-based period drama Little Boy (Open Road) opened in 1,045 theaters, but the $2.8 million it took in over the weekend wasn’t even enough to get into the Top 12.
Russell Crowe’s directorial debut The Water Diviner (Warner Bros.) opened in 320 theaters on Friday where it grossed $1.2 million, or 3,900 per theater.
The only relatively significant limited release was Nick Kroll’s Adult Beginners, co-starring Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale, which opened in ten theaters alongside its VOD release to take in $40,000, or $4,000 per theater.
