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Even an immortal Blake Lively can’t slow down Vin Diesel and the Fast and Furious franchise.

Furious 7 raced to a box office victory for a fourth consecutiv­e weekend with $18.3 million, according to studio estimates from Rentrak. The blockbuste­r action film is the first movie to achieve that feat since The Hunger Games in March 2012. Only 29 films since 1985 have had four straight box office wins.

“It’s a juggernaut. There aren’t enough adjectives in the vocabulary to properly assess the performanc­e of this film,” says Rentrak analyst Paul Dergarabed­ian.

“Pulling off a four-peat at the box office is almost unheard of,” adds Jeff Bock, senior box office analyst for Exhibitor Relations. “It just doesn’t happen.”

Comedy sequel Paul

Blart: Mall Cop 2 racked up $15.5 million and came in second. Though critically thrashed, the movie has more than doubled its $20 million production budget in two weeks of release.

A threequel isn’t out of the question, Dergarabed­ian says. “Paul Blart is a character who families love and critics despise. It’s a profit-making machine.”

The Age of Adaline, the fantasy drama starring Lively as an ageless woman, was third with $13.4 million in its opening weekend, and had a better Friday than Furious 7 with an estimated $5 million. “It just goes to show you a little bit of counterpro­gramming goes a long way,” Bock says.

The film played well with older crowds and had a lot of female

 ?? SCOTT GARFIELD, UNIVERSAL PICTURES ?? starring Vin Diesel, is the first movie to win four straight weekends since in March 2012.
SCOTT GARFIELD, UNIVERSAL PICTURES starring Vin Diesel, is the first movie to win four straight weekends since in March 2012.

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