‘Furious 7’ races to top of North American box office

LOS ANGELES, USA – The latest Fast and Furious installment raced to pole position in the North American box office this weekend, easily overtaking last week’s winner Home for the top spot, according to industry estimates Sunday.

Furious 7, the seventh in the street-racing and stunt-filled franchise, pulled in $143.6 million over its opening weekend, according to preliminary figures from box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

The film features the late Paul Walker, who was killed in an unrelated car crash in November 2013 while the film was still in production.

“Going well beyond a pitch-perfect marketing campaign and a great release date, the enthusiastic and devoted fan base came out in droves to support the franchise and the late Paul Walker – and the results are staggering,” senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian, of the box office tracker Rentrak, said in a statement. (READ: ‘Fast & Furious 7’ Review: Ridiculously fun)

In second place was animated children’s film Home, about an unpopular space alien forced to flee his own kind. It earned $27.4 million. 

Pulling in nearly $13 million and scoring third place was buddy comedy Get Hard, about a prison-bound white investment banker (Will Ferrell) who hires a black car washer (Kevin Hart) for lessons on surviving the slammer.

Disney’s live action Cinderella remake worked its magic to stay in fourth place, earning $10.3 million, with Downton Abbey star Lily James as the enchanted princess and Cate Blanchett as her wicked stepmother.

Dystopian action thriller Insurgent, the second big-screen instalment based on Veronica Roth’s best-selling Divergent book series, fell to fifth with $10 million.

Indie horror flick It Follows, took sixth place and $2.5 million in ticket sales.

Woman in Gold, which tells the true story of an elderly Holocaust survivor trying to get her Nazi-looted artwork back from the Austrian government, debuted in seventh position with a $2-million haul.

Eighth went to British spy spoof Kingsman: The Secret Service starring Colin Firth, with just $1.7 million.

Religious drama Do You Believe took ninth place with $1.5 million.

Rounding out the top 10 was sequel The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, featuring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Richard Gere, which earned $1 million. – Rappler.com