It was a slow weekend full of surprises at the box office, as some new releases mixed things up at the top of the charts.
Coming in first for the third consecutive weekend is The Fate of the Furious, which made $19.3 million. The action sequel raised its domestic total to $192.7 million, currently ranking it as the fourth-highest grossing installment in the series. While it hasn't been able to live up to the figures posted by its predecessors Stateside, Fate is a juggernaut worldwide, becoming the latest member of the $1 billion club this week. The film has turned a nice profit for Universal, taking advantage of the limited competition. With the summer releases around the corner, its time in the #1 spot is nearing an end, but overall it was a tremendous success.
Exceeding expectations to surge to second is the comedy How to be a Latin Lover with $12 million in its first three days. Though the movie received mixed reviews from critics, it still found a way to strike a chord with audiences. The fact that it made this much money at the start is very impressive, since it was only playing in 1,118 theaters. It will be interesting to see how strong its legs are as it progresses through its run, but it should be able to emerge as a solid counter-programming option for the next few weeks. Latin Lover generated positive word-of-mouth from audiences, so it'll likely stick around and hang in tough against the blockbusters.
In third is another shocker few saw coming: Baahubali 2: The Conclusion. The film brought in $10.1 million from just 425 theaters, a whopping $23,855 per location average. The foreign language movie entered theaters without much fan fare, but awareness clearly was not an issue, as people showed up in droves to support it. It's a similar situation to Latin Lover in that it seemed to come out at just the right time. The back end of April was extremely quiet, with only Fate of the Furious making any real noise. For a niche project like Baahubali 2, it was a perfect situation.
Opening in fourth is the tech thriller The Circle (read our review), which debuted with $9.3 million. Despite an A-list cast that included Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, and John Boyega, the novel adaptation failed to make any waves commercially. This can most likely be attributed to the near-universally negative critical reception, which panned the film for not bringing anything new to the table in an underdeveloped story. The production budget is reportedly just $18 million, but even that may not be a saving grace for STX. As we enter May and the summer tentpoles start coming out, The Circle is going to become a distant memory in a short period of time.
Rounding out the top five is The Boss Baby. DreamWorks' latest animated hit brought in $9 million over the weekend to raise its domestic total to $148.4 million.
The #6 film is Beauty and the Beast with $6.4 million. The live-action remake now stands at $480.1 million in the U.S. and ranks as the ninth-highest grossing film of all-time. Finding Dory, which earned $486.2 million last year, is well within reach.
In seventh is Going in Style. The comedy made $3.5 million in its fourth weekend, increasing its Stateside haul to $37.3 million.
Smurfs: The Lost Village comes in eighth with $3.3 million. The animated reboot has been a disappointment at just $37.7 million domestically.
Gifted came in ninth with $3.3 million and is now at $15.8 million Stateside.
Capping off the top 10 is Unforgettable. The thriller made $2.3 million in its second weekend to raise its domestic total to $8.8 million.
[NOTE: These are only weekend box office estimates -- based on Friday and Saturday ticket sales coupled with adjusted expectations for Sunday. Official weekend box office results will be released on Monday, May 1 -- at which time we'll update this post with any changes.]
Source: Box Office Mojo