‘Furious 7’ still outpacing all competitors

Furious 7 continues to roll at the box office, cruising to victory for the third weekend in a row with $29.1 million and a domestic total of $294.4 million.

The final film of the turbocharged franchise to star the late Paul Walker passed the $1 billion mark globally Friday after just 17 days of release, a record.

Megahits such as The Avengers and Avatar took 19 days to reach that milestone, according to tracking firm Rentrak.

“Audiences have a true emotional connection to this movie and a big part of that is support for Paul Walker,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst for Rentrak. “But this film is also the true popcorn film experience. This is why people go to the theater to take a ride like this.”

Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, the follow-up to the 2009 surprise hit, wheeled to a second-place finish with $24 million.

“It doesn’t matter what critics say for these kinds of films — there’s a place for silly family comedies,” says Jeff Bock, box office analyst for Exhibitor Relations. “We might just get a Paul

Blart trilogy yet.” Horror film Unfriended took third with its tech-heavy twist on the teenage slasher film. It earned $16 million with a microbudget estimated at $1 million.

Animated alien movie Home continued to pull in the family audience for fourth and $10.3 million. Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Longest Ride rounded out the top five with $6.9 million. Documentary Monkey King

dom, which follows toque macaque monkeys in Sri Lanka, scored seventh place in its debut weekend with $4.7 million.

Final figures are out today.