Weekend Box Office Report: April 24-26 2015

By Kip Mooney • On • In News News 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT 

April 24-26, 2015(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 51. Furious 7 (18.2 million)2. Paul Blart 2 ($15.5 million)3. The Age of Adaline ($13.3 million)4. Home ($8.3 million)5. Unfriended ($6.2 million)

Furious 7 made it four in a row. What used to be an extremely rare occurrence in modern times has actually happened twice this year. (American Sniper pulled off the feat in February.) The real feat is that it made nearly $20 million in its fourth week, which is even more unusual. With a little bit of luck, it could even become the highest-grossing movie since The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in 2013.

Unlike its costar, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 did not fall down in an embarrassing fashion in its second weekend. The maligned sequel Segway-ed its way to another second-place finish with $15.5 million. While there's no way it catches on like the original, it's certainly defied its lousy reviews to become a semi-respectable hit. (Well, as respectable as a movie in which a woman is run over by a milk truck for laughs can be.)

Blake Lively's film career may not live to see another day. While The Age of Adeline was the No. 1 movie on Friday, it fettered away its progress over the weekend to finish third overall. That was still well ahead of Home and Unfriended, but not impressive, even for a spring release. 

Outside the top 5: - This Weekend's Indie Champ: Misery Loves Comedy, Kevin Pollak's documentary on tortured comics. The film raked in $5,300 on just one screen.

- Ex Machina evolved nicely into a wide release. The film finished at No. 6, taking in $5.4 million. That's the biggest weekend ever for studio A24.

- Little Boy, the faith-based inspirational film, made $2.8 million on 1,045 screens. That's not that great, especially considering Russell Crowe's Australian epic The Water Diviner, was right behind it, despite playing on only 302 screens. 

Next week: Summer movie season kicks off, as usual, with a Marvel movie. The Avengers: Age of Ultron will definitely be the No. 1, but just how big? Lots of people are predicting the biggest opening of all time, but I think it will settle for second place. $180 million seems more reasonable.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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