Weekend Projections: ‘The Fate of the Furious’ Eyes $18.6M; ‘Baahubali 2’ & ‘How to Be a Latin Lover’ Surprise; ‘The Circle’ Debuts Modestly

Saturday Update: The Fate of the Furious reigned supreme on its 15th day of release Friday with another $5.093 million in the bank, giving it a domestic haul of $178.425 million to date. The franchise sequel is set to win its third straight weekend with a projected $18.6 million.

The somewhat more surprising news items of Friday, however, were the opening day bows of both Baahubali 2: The Conclusion ($4.75 million from 445 locations) and How to Be a Latin Lover ($3.9 million from 1,118 locations). The former of those two titles generated $2.5 million of that figure during Thursday previews. The counter-programming releases respectively came out from the under the radar and far surpassed tracking metrics to deliver stronger opening day grosses than full-wide release The Circle, which took in a modest $3.2 million in fourth place yesterday. Sleight delivered $582,000 from its 562 locations yesterday as well.

Key weekend projections based on studio figures and, in some cases, their own projections this morning are listed below. Complete studio estimates will be reported on Sunday.

WIDE (1000+)

# TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 The Fate of the Furious $18,600,000 -52% 4,077 -252 $4,562 $191,931,575 3 Universal
2 How to Be A Latin Lover $12,200,000 1,118 $10,912 $12,200,000 1 Lionsgate / Pantelion
3 The Circle $8,900,000 3,163 $2,814 $8,900,000 1 STX Entertainment
4 The Boss Baby $8,100,000 -36% 3,739 42 $2,166 $147,515,584 5 Fox / DreamWorks Animation
5 Beauty and the Beast $6,200,000 -36% 3,155 -160 $1,965 $479,900,233 7 Disney
6 Going in Style $3,300,000 -33% 2,761 -277 $1,195 $37,039,770 4 Warner Bros. / New Line
7 Gifted $3,000,000 -34% 2,215 229 $1,354 $15,530,025 4 Fox Searchlight
8 Smurfs: The Lost Village $2,900,000 -41% 2,554 -183 $1,135 $37,319,501 4 Sony / Columbia
9 Born in China $2,300,000 -52% 1,508 0 $1,525 $8,734,031 2 Disneynature
10 Unforgettable $2,200,000 -54% 2,417 0 $910 $8,738,819 2 Warner Bros.
11 Get Out $1,500,000 -10% 1,563 598 $960 $172,324,010 10 Universal
12 The Promise $1,400,000 -66% 2,251 0 $622 $7,024,018 2 Open Road

LIMITED (100 — 999)

# TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 Baahubali 2: The Conclusion $8,500,000 445 $19,101 $8,500,000 1 Great India Films
2 Sleight $1,500,000 565 $2,655 $1,500,000 1 High Top Releasing
3 Logan $705,000 -27% 614 -140 $1,148 $224,441,711 9 Fox
4 Hidden Figures $87,000 -53% 124 -36 $702 $168,992,613 19 Fox

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Friday Report: Sources report that How to Be a Latin Lover scored $450,000 in its debut last night from 925 of its overall 1,118 locations this weekend. Comparisons are few and far between outside of Instructions Not Included, but that film didn’t report any Thursday night figures when it opened in September 2013 ahead of Labor Day.

The Circle took in $430,000 last night, nearly doubling the $220,000 of fellow STX release The Edge of Seventeen and coming in shy of the $660,000 earned by Unfriended in April 2015.

Expectations for the weekend remain largely in favor of The Fate of the Furious as it paces to record a third straight box office victory. We’ll have official Friday estimates from the studios and key weekend projections on Saturday.

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