NORTH AMERICA: Weekend Actuals: 'Furious 7' Speeds Past the $250M Mark After $59.6M Weekend; 'Home' Claims Second with $18.5M; 'The Longest Ride' Debuts in Third with $13.0M

By Daniel Garris

Universal's Furious 7 easily led the weekend box office for a second straight frame with a weekend take of $59.59 million. That represented the twelfth largest second weekend performance of all-time (without adjusting for ticket price inflation). The well-received seventh installment of the blockbuster franchise featuring Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and the late Paul Walker was down 59.5 percent from last weekend. While that was obviously a sizable second weekend decline, it nonetheless represented an impressive hold given the size of the film's grosses and that the previous three installments of The Fast and The Furious franchise all experienced second weekend declines in the range of 61 percent to 64 percent. Furious 7 was aided by strong word of mouth, strong critical reviews and the lack of any new direct competition this weekend. And as massive as last weekend's debut was; it was likely still deflated slightly by Easter weekend.

Furious 7 has grossed $251.52 million through ten days of release, which ranks as the ninth largest ten-day start of all-time. The film is running an extremely impressive 47 percent ahead of the $171.00 million ten-day gross of 2013's Fast & Furious 6 and 1 percent ahead of the $248.48 million ten-day gross of 2012's The Hunger Games. Furious 7 is now the highest grossing film of The Fast and The Furious franchise domestically, as it has already surpassed the $238.68 million final gross of Fast & Furious 6. Furious 7 will zoom past the $300 million domestic milestone before long and is in excellent shape to eventually surpass the $350 million mark.

Home held steady in second place with $18.53 million. The 3D computer animated film from Fox and DreamWorks Animation was down 31 percent from last weekend. On the heels of last weekend's sizable second weekend decline, Home stabilized nicely this weekend. Home continues to exceed expectations in a very big way with a 17-day take of $129.09 million. That places the film 3 percent ahead of the $125.35 million 17-day gross of 2013's The Croods. Home will have a good chance of holding up well going forward, especially with no new animated films entering the marketplace between now and the June 19th launch of Disney's Inside Out.

Fellow Fox release The Longest Ride debuted in third place with $13.02 million. The Nicholas Sparks adaptation starring Britt Robertson and Scott Eastwood opened on the low end of pre-release expectations. Compared to other Nicholas Sparks adaptations, The Longest Ride debuted 30 percent ahead of the $10.00 million start of last year's The Best of Me and 42 percent below the $22.52 million launch of 2012's The Lucky One.

The Longest Ride opened with $5.51 million on Friday (which included an estimated $625,000 from Thursday evening shows), fell 11 percent on Saturday to gross $4.93 million and declined 48 percent on Sunday to take in $2.58 million. That placed the film's opening weekend to Friday ratio at just 2.36 to 1. That isn't the greatest early sign for the film going forward. However, The Longest Ride did receive a very encouraging A rating on CinemaScore.

Warner's Get Hard placed in fourth with $8.22 million. The R-rated comedy starring Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart was down one spot and 37 percent from last weekend. Much like Home, Get Hard also stabilized very nicely this weekend after experiencing a sharp decline last weekend. Get Hard has grossed $70.78 million through 17 days of release. That is towards the lower end of expectations and places the film 20 percent behind the $88.25 million 17-day take of 2010's The Other Guys.

Cinderella rounded out the weekend's top five with $7.14 million. Disney's blockbuster fairy tale adaptation was down one spot and a healthy 30 percent from last weekend. Cinderella has grossed $180.69 million in 31 days, which leaves the film $19.31 million away from reaching the $200 million domestic milestone. Cinderella is running 11 percent behind the $202.01 million 31-day gross of last year's Maleficent.

The Divergent Series: Insurgent placed in sixth with $6.71 million. The second installment of Lionsgate's young adult franchise was down one spot and a solid 34 percent from last weekend. Insurgent has grossed $114.71 million in 24 days. That places the film 8 percent behind the $124.76 million 24-day take of last year's Divergent.

The Weinstein Company's Woman In Gold followed in seventh with $5.48 million in its first weekend of wide release. The drama starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds generated a respectable per-location average of $3,646 from 1,504 locations. Woman In Gold was up 162 percent over last weekend's limited launch and has grossed a solid $8.93 million in twelve days.

On the platform front, A24's Ex Machina was off to a strong start with an estimated $237,264 from 4 locations in New York and Los Angeles. That gave the critically acclaimed Alex Garland directed sci-fi film a promising per-location average of $59,316 for the frame. Ex Machina will expand into additional locations going forward.