Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Tuesday 18 april 2017
‘Fast and the Furious’ on

road to record global debut

LINDSEY BAHR best for the franchise and get, but it is reported to be
AP Film Writer enough to easily top the in the pricey $250 million
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The domestic charts, but well range. However, an A Cin-
eighth installment in the below the $147.2 million ema Score from exit polls
“Fast and the Furious” is on opening of “Furious 7” in suggest that it will have suf-
the path to becoming the 2015. ficient staying power.
biggest worldwide debut of “Furious 7” had a ground- The “Fast and the Furious”
all time, besting both “Star swell of additional interest is a global juggernaut for
Wars: The Force Awakens” due to the death of actor Universal Pictures, which
and “Jurassic World.” Paul Walker, who played plans two additional pic-
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Charlize Theron, Universal Pictures on Sun- cop turned street racer Bri- tures. With the addition of
left, and Vin Diesel in “The Fate of the Furious.” day estimated that “The an O’Conner, a lead char- “Fast 8,” the franchise has
Associated Press Fate of the Furious” would acter in six of the films. earned an estimated $4.4
earn a record $532.5 million He died in a car crash while billion globally.
worldwide over the holi- the film was still in produc- “It is a franchise that has
day weekend, thanks to a tion. adapted and changed
particularly robust showing For the studio, “Fast 8” over the years and is as rel-
in 63 territories, including stands on its own as being evant in 2017 as it was in
China. “an extraordinary result.” 2001,” noted Paul Derga-
If the figures hold, it will just “Each one of these films rabedian, the senior media
inch past the previous re- has its own momentum,” analyst for comScore.
cord holder, “Star Wars: said Nick Carpou, Univer- “The ‘Furious’ franchise
The Force Awakens” which sal’s president of domes- perfectly represents what
launched to $529 million in tic distribution. “There are that global audience is all
December of 2015 without factors from one film to about. They’re poised per-
China. the next that make them fectly for installments 9 and
The film broke the record unique and certainly there 10 to do very well. It’s still fir-
for biggest international were unique factors with ing on all cylinders.”
weekend ever, with $432.3 ‘Furious 7.’” The rest of the chart looked
million. The previous record “The Fate of the Furious” sleepy in comparison to
holder was “Jurassic World” has many of the returning the fresh fuel of “The Fate
with $316.7 million. stars like Vin Diesel, Dwayne of the Furious.” ‘’The Boss
“There is no market that Johnson, Michelle Rodri- Baby” took second with
hasn’t had a strong recep- guez, Tyrese and Ludacris, $15.5 million, while “Beauty
tion,” said Duncan Clark, but has added some new and the Beast” held on to
Universal’s president of elements behind the cam- third place with $13.6 mil-
international distribution. era in director F. Gary Gray lion.
“Whatever culture, what- and in front of the camera “Beauty and the Beast”
ever language, whatever with Charlize Theron. crossed the $1 billion mark
country, we seem to have The $100.2 million is slightly worldwide this weekend.
found a home.” below analyst expecta- Rounding out the top five
The China opening alone tions for the film. were “Smurfs: The Lost Vil-
brought in a record $190 Audiences were 58 percent lage” with $6.5 million and
million followed by $17.8 male, 50 percent under the “Going in Style” with $6.4
million from Mexico and age of 25 and diverse (41 million.
$17 million from the U.K. percent were Caucasian, The summer movie season
and Ireland. 26 percent Hispanic and really kicks into high gear in
An estimated $100.2 million 19 percent African Ameri- a few weeks when “Guard-
of the global total comes can). ians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”
from 4,310 North Ameri- The studio has not released goes into orbit on May 5.q
can theaters — a second an official production bud-

GLAAD to honor Debra Messing at

annual awards ceremony

The Associated Press Media award at its 28th ter Grace Adler.
NEW YORK (AP) — Debra annual ceremony, to be The NBC show was instru-
Messing will be honored hosted by Ross Mathews. mental in changing hearts
May 6 at the GLAAD Me- Previous winners include and minds of countless
dia Awards as a champion Robert De Niro, Russell Sim- Americans as among the
against discrimination. mons, Glenn Close and Di- first on prime-time network
The media LGBTQ advo- ane Sawyer. television to feature out
cacy organization an- Messing, a longtime ally gay lead characters.
nounced Monday it will to the LGBTQ community, It ran for eight seasons and
give the “Will & Grace” won an Emmy in 2003 for will soon return to NBC.q
actress the Excellence in her “Will & Grace” charac-