The Fate of the Furious.
Universal’s The Fate of the Furious raced to the top of the Aussie box office over the Easter long weekend, pulling in $10.1 million.
The eighth installment in the franchise bowed on 697 screens; a whopping average of $14,452.
Globally, The Fate of the Furious has narrowly broken the record for the biggest opening weekend ever, having made $USD532.5 million ($AUD700 million). The previous record was held by Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which opened on $USD529 million in 2015.
Back in Oz, Beauty and the Beast was knocked down to second place with earnings of $3 million; a fall of 39 per cent. The Disney title has grossed $40.4 million after four weeks.
The Boss Baby has maintained third position, falling 18 per cent to take just under $2 million. The Fox/DreamWorks animation, now in its third week, has a cume of $16.3 million.
Also in its third week is WB’s The Lego Batman Movie, which took $1.3 million. Overall, the film, brought to life by Animal Logic, sits on $8.3 million.
Weekend takings of $803,021 brings Sony’s Smurfs: The Lost Village to $4.3 million after three weeks. Meanwhile, Paramount’s Ghost in the Shell lost some 173 screens over its third weekend, taking $515,805; a fall of 57 per cent. The action sci-fi has grossed $5.3 million so far.
Manje Bistre has debuted on $402,399 from only 28 screens. Impressively, the Punjabi-language film's screen average is almost that of The Fate of the Furious: $14,371.
Behind it is StudioCanal’s Dance Academy, which fell 46 per cent to take $286,322. The Aussie film now sits on $1.5 million after two weeks.
WB’s Chips tumbled 58 per cent to ring up $185,856 over its second weekend. The buddy cop film, which has received a critical panning, now sits on $808,219.
Fox’s Logan is still in the top ten after seven weeks with weekend earnings of $180,648. The last installment in the Wolverine franchise has made $23.2 million overall in Australia.