FAST FIVE IS FASTER THAN PREDICTED

As things turned out, Fast Five not only came in well ahead of the predictions by box office forecasters, it came in ahead of the studio’s own estimates on Sunday. Universal, whose own prediction had been that the movie would open with around $60 million (a figure that most analysts regarded as a low-ball number), had estimated that the movie had earned $83.6 million. But the movie raced ahead of Sunday’s guesses (weekend estimates are based on actual figures for Friday and Saturday but only an educated guess for Sunday). The final figure: $86.2 million. That number helped push the box office total to $158.7 million — up a whopping 56 percent above the comparable week a year ago, which was led by the debuting A Nightmare on Elm Street with $32.9 million and the sixth week of How to Train Your Dragon with $10.6 million. It was the third week in a row that the box office was able to beat its year-ago results — only there was no asterisk attached to this one. The two previous upsurges were attributed mostly to the fact that spring break occurred later this year than last. Two other new films did not contribute much to the upturn. Disney’s Prom opened in fifth place with a dismal $4.7 million, and the animated Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil followed in sixth place with just $4.1 million.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Box Office Mojo (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):
1. Fast Five, Universal, $86,198,765, (New); 2. Rio, 20th Century Fox, $14,787,836, 3 Wks. ($104,014,851); 3. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family, Lionsgate, $9,860,929, 2 Wks. ($40891043); 4. Water for Elephants, 20th Century Fox, $9,342,413, 2 Wks. ($32,480,214); 5. Prom, Disney, $4,712,638, (New); 6. Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil, Weinstein Co. $4,108,630, (New); 7. Soul Surfer, Sony/Tristar, $3,367,867, 4 Wks. ($33,843,019); 8. Insidious, Film District, $2,689,676, 5 Wks. ($48,309,912); 9. Hop, Universal, $2,683,720, 5 Wks. ($105,403,285); 10. Source Code, Summit, $2,509,824, 5 Wks. ($48,887,188).