Furious 8 still leaving rivals in dust
Action movie The Fate of the Furious ( aka Furious 8) led North American box offices for the third straight weekend, the last slow stretch before big summer pictures start opening.
The eighth installment in the series from Universal added about $ 20 million in ticket sales in the United States and Canada, ComScore Inc. said. Of two new films in wide release, The Circle, with Tom Hanks as a Silicon Valley chief executive officer, placed a disappointing fifth with $ 9 million. Furious 8 has generated almost $ 1 billion in worldwide ticket sales in three weeks.
Furious 8 faced little competition for the top spot before Hollywood breaks out its big summer films. The May- toSeptember stretch typically produces about 40 percent of the industry’s annual ticket sales and is expected to start strong today with the sequel to its 2015 surprise hit Guardians of the Galaxy.
The Circle, from STX Entertainment, missed a first weekend forecast of $ 11.4 million from Hollywood Stock Exchange.
In the film, Emma Watson plays a young new recruit at a successful internet company where Hanks plays visionary co- founder Eamon Bailey. Watson’s character gets caught up in a scheme to invade people’s privacy.
The film was savaged by critics, securing only 18 percent positive reviews at Rottentomatoes. com. It cost $ 18 million to produce, not including marketing costs, according to researcher Box Office Mojo.
Based on the 2013 Dave Eggers novel, the film puts a social media- age spin on dystopian nightmares such as 1984 and Brave New World, in an effort to reach young adults with a heady thriller. It also stars John Boyega, Bill Paxton and Ellar Coltrane.
The other new release was How to Be a Latin Lover, a comedy from Lionsgate that placed second with sales of $ 12.3 million, according to Box Office Mojo.
Mexican comedian Eugenio Derbez plays Maximo, a gigolo who’s dumped by his older rich wife. He’s forced to move in with his sister, played by Salma Hayek, where he learns to live a new kind of life. It also stars Raquel Welch, Rob Lowe and Kristen Bell. The film fared better with critics, who gave 38 percent positive reviews.
The film’s stellar performance, from just 1,118 targeted locations, is important considering the demographics of its audience. In addition to 50 percent of them being over 35, 89 percent of moviegoers were Hispanic. This domestic support for a film led by one of Mexico’s biggest stars bodes well for Derbez’s hopes to cross over.
Eyes are also on Great India Films’ Baahubali 2: The Conclusion which, screening in 425 locations, landed in third with $ 10.3 million. The Tollywood ( Telugu language) film from South India is a historical action drama fantasy and the sequel to 2015’ s Baahubali: The Beginning.
Directed by S. S. Rajamouli, known for a host of Telugu pictures, the film stars Prabhas, Rana Daggubati and Anushka Shetty, all noted actors in India.
While an average Rotten Tomatoes rating is not available, the two reviews from the site give the picture three and four stars out of five.
Also in the top five was 20th Century Fox’s The Boss Baby, with $ 9.4 million in its fifth week. The animated movie has brought in $ 149 million domestically to date.