Big Hollywood » 2 fast 2 furious

Hollywood’s Biggest Easter Weekend Ever By As Much As 16%!: ‘Hannah Montana’ Down 40% on Saturday, But Still Becomes All-Time #2 Easter Weekend Opening With $34M!

by Steve Mason

She has a hit TV show on the Disney Channel, a pair of albums that have debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts, a concert tour with 69 sold-out arenas in North America, and now a second #1 movie in as many years. Miley Cyrus is the biggest teen star in the world.

With most of Hollywood (including myself) expecting an opening in the mid-$20M’s for Hannah Montana The Movie (Disney), Miley has surprised “grown-ups” with her box office clout once again. The picture opened with a heavily front-loaded $17.39M on Good Friday then dropped 40% on Saturday to an estimated $10.34M, and it will reach an estimated $34M by the end of Easter weekend, making it the all-time #2 opening for the bunny holiday weekend. My Friday night early 3-day projection was for $33.6M, but then I raised my number to $39M on Saturday. As it turns out, I should have stuck with my first pass. These young skewing movies are tricky to project, and the Easter Weekend, where Saturday traditionally drops from Friday, makes it even more complicated.

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Tags: "Fast & Furious", 2 fast 2 furious, 3-d, adventureland, akira toriyama
Posted Apr 10th 2009 at 10:58 pm in Entertainment, Political Humor, Steve Mason's Box Office | 103286No Comments2009-04-11+05%3A58%3A08Steve+Mason

Lots of Cash in Hollywood Easter Baskets: ‘Hannah Montana’ and ‘Observe & Report’ Could Lift the Weekend to an All-time Best!

by Steve Mason

Easter weekend 2009 will almost certainly be an all-time record-breaker for Hollywood with a pair of new releases that could be among the top six bunny holiday openings of all time. Although neither Hannah Montana: The Movie (Disney) or the new R-rated comedy Observe & Report (Warner Bros) will challenge 2006’s all-time Easter weekend opening champion Scary Movie 4 ($40.2M), both new offerings look very solid in pre-release industry tracking, and they will be joined by some strong holdovers.

Universal’s Fast & Furious is likely to cross the finish line first for a second consecutive weekend, following up last weekend’s almost $71M with about $30M, which would mark a 58% drop. Still, it must be considered a triumph that the re-teaming of Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez may have $120M in US sales after just 10 days. That will mean that Fast & Furious will have almost doubled the domestic gross of The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift (the last film in the franchise), and this souped-up thrill ride could be headed for $160M US.

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Tags: "Fast & Furious", 2 fast 2 furious, 3-d, adventureland, akira toriyama
Posted Apr 9th 2009 at 9:31 am in Entertainment, Steve Mason's Box Office | 101426One Comment2009-04-09+16%3A31%3A58Steve+Mason

FAST & FURIOUS Opens With a Scalding $30M Friday & Could Speed to $70M by Monday, Surpassing CARS as the All-time Biggest Opening for an Auto Racing Movie!

by Steve Mason

With 400,000 Americans showing up every year at the Indy 500 and 200,000 more buying tickets to see NASCAR’s premiere event The Daytona 500, you would think that the most creative minds in Hollywood would be looking for a way to cash in with more movies about car racing and car culture. NASCAR has an estimated 75 million fans, and it is second only to the National Football League in terms of television ratings, so where are all the good racing movies?

Jordana Brewster is reunited with Vin, Paul and Michelle in FAST & FURIOUS

Universal seems to have answered that question by getting its successful street racing franchise back into the fast lane this weekend with Fast & Furious. The movie, which reunites Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez for the first time since 2001’s original surprise blockbuster, has exploded to a high octane $30.11M or so on Friday and that could mean a $70M opening weekend. That would make it the all-time #1 opening for a car racing movie.

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Tags: 12 rounds, 2 fast 2 furious, 2-d, 3-d, 3-day take
Posted Apr 3rd 2009 at 10:32 pm in Entertainment, Steve Mason's Box Office | 971669 Comments2009-04-04+05%3A32%3A48Steve+Mason

FAST & FURIOUS may “race” to $48M opening weekend with MONSTERS VS. ALIENS holding strong at $35M!

by Steve Mason

Universal’s Fast & Furious will be “burning rubber” this weekend at America’s multiplexes as the original street-racing cast reunites after some sub-par chapters of the franchise.

The original The Fast & The Furious hit theatres in 2001 under the direction of Rob Cohen who had shown a knack for action with Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story ($35M US cume) and Sly Stallone’s Daylight ($33M US cume) and a savvy feel for bigger-than-life characters in his Golden Globe winning biopic The Rat Pack (which, if you’ve never seen you should put in your Netflix cue and prepare to be amazed by Don Cheadle’s turn as Sammy Davis, Jr.). In tow, he had a 34-year-old Vin Diesel in only his second starring role following the surprise low budget hit Pitch Black ($39M cume) and 28-year-old Paul Walker, who had just starred in Cohen’s forgettable The Skulls. Also in the cast was Jordana Brewster (As the World Turns) and a pre-Lost Michelle Rodriguez, whose most notable credit was a gritty little indie called Girlfight.

Vin Diesel returns for FAST & FURIOUS

The result was box office jet fuel. Seemingly out of nowhere, The Fast & The Furious scored a scalding $40M opening weekend and reached $144.5M domestic and over $200M worldwide. But Diesel, whose signature line in the original movie is “I live my life one quarter of a mile at a time,” didn’t like the script for the sequel (or they wouldn’t pay his asking price depending on who you ask). That led to the 2003 sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious directed by Academy Award nominee John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood) starring Walker along with rapper Tyrese Gibson and Eva Mendes. Despite Diesel’s conspicuous absence, 2 Fast still delivered $127M in the US. (more…)

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Tags: 12 rounds, 2 fast 2 furious, 2-d, 3-d, 3-day take
Posted Apr 2nd 2009 at 7:24 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 961308 Comments2009-04-03+02%3A24%3A21Steve+Mason

Posts Tagged ‘2 fast 2 furious’

Hollywood’s Biggest Easter Weekend Ever By As Much As 16%!: ‘Hannah Montana’ Down 40% on Saturday, But Still Becomes All-Time #2 Easter Weekend Opening With $34M!

Lots of Cash in Hollywood Easter Baskets: ‘Hannah Montana’ and ‘Observe & Report’ Could Lift the Weekend to an All-time Best!

FAST & FURIOUS Opens With a Scalding $30M Friday & Could Speed to $70M by Monday, Surpassing CARS as the All-time Biggest Opening for an Auto Racing Movie!

FAST & FURIOUS may “race” to $48M opening weekend with MONSTERS VS. ALIENS holding strong at $35M!

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