Drawing in more than $70 million over the weekend, 'Fast and Furious' has shattered previous North American box office records and knocked 'Monsters vs. Aliens' off the chart's top slot.
- Apr 6, 2009
AceShowbiz - "Fast and Furious" has revved up the North American box office and easily won the top slot by a clear mile over the weekend. Collecting nearly $71 million from 3,461 theaters, the fourth installment of "The Fast and the Furious" franchise outsold last week champion, "Monsters vs. Aliens", and set a series of new records.
With a bow that doubled what most industry observers had previously predicted, this street car racing-themed movie scored the highest-grossing opening ever for the series, outdrawing the $50.5 million debut tally of "2 Fast 2 Furious". It also shattered "Anger Management" old record in being the biggest April opening ever.
Easily beating "Monsters vs. Aliens"'s $59.3 million debut bow to secure also this year's biggest opening title in the North American market, "Fast and Furious" made impressive debut overseas as well. The Justin Lin-directed movie opened first in most of the international markets, including Germany, Mexico and Spain, and brought in $30.1 million from the 31 international markets.
The second box office slot went to "Monsters vs. Aliens". Though slipping to the runner up position and experienced about 45|percent| decline in sales, the 3-D animation movie still had a solid run, raking in $32.6 million. So far, the DreamWorks Animation SKG film has hauled in a total of $104.8 million.
"The Haunting in Connecticut", in the meantime, dropped two spots to the third position. In its second week of theatrical screening, the supernatural horror movie only managed to earn $9.5 million. "Knowing" followed in the fourth place with $8.1 million, while "I Love You, Man" was in fifth with $7.7 million. Additionally, Kristen Stewart's "Adventureland" was pushed to the sixth place, collecting $5.7 million.
Top Ten Movies at Weekend Box Office for April 3 - 5:
- "Fast and Furious" - $70.95 million
- "Monsters vs. Aliens" - $32.6 million
- "The Haunting in Connecticut" - $9.5 million
- "Knowing" - $8.1 million
- "I Love You, Man" - $7.7 million
- "Adventureland" - $5.7 million
- "Duplicity" - $4.2 million
- "Race to Witch Mountain" - $3.2 million
- "12 Rounds" - $2.3 million
- "Sunshine Cleaning" - $1.8 million
