"Furious 7" Vin Disel (Photo : Reuters / Mario Anzuoni)
“Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2” just could not get ahead of “Furious 7” – not even on the former’s debut weekend. The seventh installment of the “Fast & Furious” franchise continued to dominate the box office, even after a slight slowing down since its premiere night.
Despite the minor pit stop, “Furious 7” is still owns the No. 1 spot for the third consecutive weekend, according to IGN, with an estimated total of a whopping $294 million, which is clearly very much above the previous film’s $202.8 million. According to NBC News, the film had just crossed its $1 billion mark on Friday.
With these numbers, “Furious 7,” which happens to be the last movie to be filmed by the late actor Paul Walker, have now “truly become part of movie folklore.” “The film has set a new standard for the potential for box office in the pre-summer month of April,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst of Rentrak, a known box office tracker.
Although, Kevin James’s flick did not quite make it, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2” did come in second with an estimated amount of $24 million. Sadly, this was not at par with its predecessor’s $31.8 million in 2009. Despite not having set any new records, Sony was still reportedly glad with the results, considering that the movie only cost $30 million to produce.
“It was something that Kevin really wanted to do and we wanted to do it with him,” Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution of Sony, said. “It is a great result. It is going to be very profitable for us and a big success.”
