'Furious 7' races to top of North American box office
Furious 7,which faced the death of a principal cast member, Paul Walker, before filming was complete, sold an estimated US$143.6 million in tickets at North American theaters.
"Furious 7," the seventh in the street-racing and stunt-filled franchise, pulled in US$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.
In second place was animated children's film "Home," about an unpopular space alien forced to flee his own kind. It earned US$27.4 million.
Pulling in nearly US$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 US$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 US$10 million.
Indie horror flick "It Follows," took sixth place and US$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 US$1.7 million.
Religious drama "Do You Believe" took ninth place with US$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.
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