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‘Furious 7’ races to box office victory for second weekend

The stars of 'Furious 7.'. Handout

NEW YORK – The high-octane thriller Furious 7 maintained speed in its second week, racing away with $60.6 million at North American theatres and bringing its box-office total to a robust $252.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Furious 7 more than lapped the competition. The only new wide release of the weekend, the rodeo romance The Longest Ride, opened with $13.5 million.

That was good enough for third place for the release, which stars Clint Eastwood’s son, Scott Eastwood. In second was the animated alien adventure Home, which pulled in $19 million in its third week of release.

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But Furious 7 continued to dominate the marketplace, dropping only 59 per cent from its remarkable $147.2 million debut last weekend. Globally, it has already crossed $800 million in its first two weeks of release.

The weekend international total — an eye-popping $195 million — was boosted by the film premiering in China on Sunday, where it earned an estimated $68.6 million in just one day.

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Over 10 days, Furious 7, which prominently features a tribute to the late actor Paul Walker, has already out-grossed all previous installments of the 14-year-old franchise.

At its current pace, Furious 7 will likely become the highest grossing film in Universal’s history. The studio’s Jurassic Park, from 1993, holds Universal’s mark with $1.02 billion worldwide.

It’s a summer blockbuster-sized result for Furious 7, but by opening in April, it has little competition in its way. On a much smaller scale, the critically acclaimed sci-fi film Ex Machina drew the year’s largest theatre average of $62,489 in four theatres.

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