After its thunderous start at the world box office last weekend Furious 7 stayed in high gear, earning $255.59 million at home and abroad in its return frame and clearing an $800.5 million global cumulative. In just ten days Furious 7 has become the highest grossing feature in the franchise’s fourteen-year history, taking combined earnings for the seven films to a massive $3.18 billion.
 
The largest portion of this weekend’s $195 million earnings in 66 overseas territories came from a single day in one movie-mad country. A Sunday release in China saw Furious 7 earn $69 million in just twenty-four hours, smashing the all time record for single-day earnings in the middle kingdom along the way. Elsewhere in Asia, it reached $18.1 million in Taiwan and $16.1 million in Korea, while in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam it became Universal’s highest grossing film ever. In India, and in part thanks to a cameo from Bollywood star Ali Fazal, it enjoyed the biggest weekend opening in history for a Hollywood film, taking $11.7 million from the rapidly developing south-Asian giant. Furious 7 earned $16.4 million in its first four days of play in Russia, again breaking the local weekend gross record, and reached $39.1 million in the UK, $28.3 million in Germany, $20.7 million in France, and $16.2 million in Italy. Furious 7 became Universal’s all time record film also in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, and Paraguay. It reached considerable cumulative earnings of  $39.7 million in Mexico and $23.5 million in Brazil.
 
Home market earnings dropped 59% to $60.6 million after last weekend’s blockbuster $147.2 million Easter opening. Seven’s North American cumulative now stands at $252.5 million, already well beyond Fast & Furious 6’s lifetime domestic gross. Second place in the U.S. went to Fox and DreamWorks Animation’s Home. Now in its third week on North American screens, this title dropped just 30% from last week, finishing the frame with a solid $19.1 million. It racked up $15.2 million overseas as well, with highlights coming from Brazil and the UK where it made $2.25 and $2.2 million respectively.
 
Among this frame’s new releases at the American box office was The Longest Ride, the tenth filmed adaptation of a book from serial romance novelist Nicholas Sparks, and the first leading role in a major motion picture for the newest star in the Eastwood family. Scott Eastwood, first time as the biggest name on the marquee, sees him play professional bull rider Luke Collins, a role for which the progeny of one of Hollywood’s greatest gunslingers wasn’t entirely unprepared. He grew up in ranches and around horses, although he never mounted a rodeo bull before.
Even if Scott, who is a Clint lookalike, shouldn’t turn into a movie star or a sex symbol after this role, he has certainly learned from his famous dad how a healthy mind and a healthy body go together. And he claims he just loves acting. The Longest Ride took third at the domestic box office, opening to $10 million and picking up an ‘A’ Cinemascore, something that will likely carry this picture into the $50 million lifetime range typical of Nicholas Sparks films.
 
Also on the domestic charts Danny Collins, starring Al Pacino as an aging rocker trying to reconnect with his musical roots enjoyed a successful $1.3 million expansion into 242 screens this weekend. Still on the specialty market, A24 films released its sci-fi flic Ex Machina, a low budget picture about an AI gone rogue. It made $249,956 in just four theaters, which gives it a remarkable $62,489 per-theatrer average.
 
Next week we’ll follow the opening of Disney Nature’s Monkey Kingdom and MTV Film’s Unfriended, a horror thriller that plays out in its entirety over a Skype chat, as well as Paul Blart’s Mall Cop 2.
Lorenzo Soria