The summer movie season began early this last weekend with Hollywood eager and ready to try and turn around its ticket sales in 2011.
So far, so good. At least for Fast Five, the fifth installment in the Fast and Furious franchise. The movie took in $83.6 million over the weekend, a record for the franchise and a record for a movie opening in April.
In North America, Fast Five played in 3,644 theaters, including 243 Imax locations where the film did big business, grossing $8.3 million.
The film faces competition next week from Thor, which gets its domestic release. But if world-wide figures are any indication, the movie could be up to it. In several regions of the world where the two went head-to-head, Fast Five held its own against the Marvel superhero film.
For two other newly opening films, the results weren’t quite as good. Disney’s Prom opened with just $5 million and the Hoodwinked sequel, Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil took in $4.1 million.
In second place was Rio, taking in $14.4 million, followed by Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family with $10.5 million. Water for Elephants was No. 4 with $9.1 million.
