The top of this weekend's box office looks a lot like last weekend as the top three films remain the same, once again headlined by The Fate of the Furious as it closes in on $1 billion worldwide. As for the weekend's new releases, Disney's Born in China topped the list with the best start for a Disneynature title since the $10.6 million opening for 2012's Chimpanzee. Otherwise, WB's Unforgettable, Open Road's The Promise, Cinelou's Phoenix Forgotten and A24's Free Fire all under-performed.
At #1 for a second weekend in a row is Universal's The Fate of the Furious, which performed mostly as expected, dropping 61% in its second weekend and bringing in an estimated $38.6 million as its domestic cume now climbs to $163.6 million. Internationally, the film continued its impressive overseas run bringing in an estimated $163.4 million from 65 territories as its overseas total balloons to $744.8 million for a global cume that stands at $908.4 million. The film will cross $1 billion worldwide later this week and it will be making its debut in Japan on April 28.
And just as this weekend saw a repeat at #1, the same goes for second and third with Fox's The Boss Baby and Disney's Beauty and the Beast delivering estimated $12.75 million and $9.97 million weekends respectively. Both are strong performances with Boss Baby only dropping 20% as its cume closes in on $140 million domestically. Meanwhile, Beauty and the Beast dipped only 28% as its cume is now over $471 million domestically.
Overseas, Beauty and the Beast debuted in its final international market, Japan, where it opened at #1 with an estimated $12.8 million as the film enjoyed an estimated $22.9 million weekend internationally bringing its international total to $629.2 million for a worldwide cume that stands at $1.1 billion.
Moving along, Disney also took the fourth slot at the weekend box office with the latest Disneynature release, Born in China, which managed to deliver an estimated $5.1 million from 1,508 theaters. This is an improvement over the last two Disneynature openings—Monkey Kingdom ($4.6m) and Bears ($4.8m)—and the film received an "A-" CinemaScore from opening day audiences.
Rounding out the top five is WB's Going in Style, which also dropped only 20% and brought in an estimated $5 million as its cume now totals $31.7 million.
In sixth was Smurfs: The Lost Village, which brought in an estimated $4.5 miillion as its domestic cume now stands at $33.3 million. Internationally, the latest Smurfs feature has now crossed $100 million overseas after opening in China this weekend with an estimated $11.1 million.
We don't get to the next new release until the seventh slot as Warner's Unforgettable will clearly soon be forgotten as the film could only manage an estimated $4.8 million from 2,417 theaters, well below our forecast and pre-release industry expectations. While critics weren't too enamored with the film—it scored a 45 on Metacritic—opening day audiences weren't too impressed either as the film received a "C" CinemaScore.
In eighth is Fox Searchlight's expanded release of Gifted, which delivered a solid $4.5 million weekend as it expanded into 1,986 theaters (+840). The film seems to have found some traction after something of a moderate start, whether that leads to Searchlight to shift plans and expand further remains to be seen.
Ninth place belongs to Open Road's The Promise, which opened with just $4 million from 2,251 theaters. Reports have pegged the production budget for this one at $90 million and the film wasn't without its own share of controversy leading up to release as was noted in a Washington Post article discussing the project with director Terry George including the film's subject matter and the more than 120,000 ratings on IMDb in advance of the release, which we referenced in our weekend forecast.
Rounding out the top ten is Bleecker Street's expanded release of The Lost City of Z. After opening in four theaters last weekend the film expanded to 641 locations and brought in an estimated $2.1 million for a strong, $3,497 per theater average.
Finishing just outside the top ten is Cinelou's Phoenix Forgotten, which opened in 1,592 theaters with an estimated $2 million and just behind it is Universal's Get Out, which brought in an estimated $1.7 million to start its ninth week in release as the domestic cume for the $4.5 million budgeted feature has now topped $170 million.
Much further down the list we find A24's new release Free Fire, which failed to capture audience attention, finishing with an estimated $1.03 million from 1,070 theaters.
In limited release, IFC's Citizen Jane opened in two theaters in New York, bringing in an estimated $33,760 ($16,880 PTA) and will open in Los Angeles next week, followed by a rollout into the top fifteen markets throughout May. Additionally, The Orchard's Jeremiah Tower also debuted in two theaters, bringing in an estimated $24,068 ($12,034 PTA).
Overall, the weekend was down 40% compared to last week as the top twelve couldn't combine for more than $100 million for only the second time this year.
Next weekend sees the release of STX's The Circle starring Tom Hanks and Emma Watson, Pantelion's How to be a Latin Lover starring Eugenio Derbez and the next potential Blumhouse breakout feature, Sleight, a sci-fi actioner starring Jacob Latimore that played at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
