“Fate of the Furious” cruised easily to another No. 1 spot at the box office this weekend, bringing in an estimated $38.6 million from 4,329 screens in its second weekend in theaters, a 61 percent drop from its $98.8 million domestic opening.
That two-frame showing is very similar to the one put forth four years ago by “Fast & Furious 6,” which earned a 3-day opening of $97.3 million on Memorial Day weekend before dropping 64 percent to $35.1 million in its second weekend.
“Fate of the Furious” now has an estimated 10-day total of $163.6 million, almost the same amount the film made overseas this weekend. Universal now projects a global total of $908 million, with Japan getting a release next weekend. The film is now the second-highest grossing film in “F&F” franchise history, and we will see how close it gets to the $1.5 billion that “Furious 7” scored in 2015.
With no studio wanting to put out a major title in the wake of Universal’s tentpole release, the next three spots on the box office list belong to holdovers. “The Boss Baby” is in second with an estimated $12.5 million and a domestic cume of $136.8 million. “Beauty and the Beast” is third with an estimated $9.8 million and a cume of $470 million after six weeks in theaters.
Coming in fourth is the highest performing new release of this weekend, Disneynature’s “Born in China,” which made an estimated $5.1 million from 1,509 screens. The Lu Chuan nature documentary edged out New Line’s “Going in Style” and Sony Animation’s “Smurfs: The Lost Village,” which both made just under $5 million in their third frames.
Performing below expectations this weekend was Warner Bros. love triangle thriller “Unforgettable,” which made $4.8 million from 2,417 screens, falling well-below the $7 million the studio had projected. The film was also poorly received critically, getting a 24 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a woeful C- on CinemaScore.
While Open Road’s “The Promise” did better critically with an A- on CinemaScore and a 45 percent RT rating, it only made $4 million from 2,251 screens against a reported $90 million budget. Fox Searchlight is feeling a little better about “Gifted,” which made $4.5 million after expanding to 1,986 screens in its third frame.