Weekend Box Office: 'Furious 7' Triumphs Again, 'Avengers' Explodes Overseas

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Fending off a challenge from the new romantic fantasy The Age of Adeline, Universal’s Furious 7 held on to the top spot at the North American box office for the fourth weekend in a row as it took in an estimated $18.3 million, bringing its domestic tally to $320.5 million.

Adaline, starring Blake Lively, won the box office race on Friday, with nearly $5 million from 2,991 theaters, slightly ahead of Furious’ $4.9 million for the day. But the new film, from Lakeshore and Sidney Kimmel, which Lionsgate is distributing, settled into third place for the weekend with $13.2 million. Directed by Lee Toland Krieger, the PG-13-rated movie cost about $30 million, with Lionsgate and Lakeshore splitting the budget between them, is looking to hang in as counter-programming as bigger movies begin rolling out in May.

Related: ‘Furious 8’ Gets 2017 Release Date

Sony’s Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, in its second weekend, claimed the number two slot as the Kevin James comedy took in $15.5 million, bringing its total to nearly $44 million. The PG-rated movie was down just 35 percent from its opening weekend.

Experiencing a genuine growth spurt in the marketplace in its third weekend, A24’s sci-fi tale Ex Machina moved up from 39 sites last weekend to a wide 1,255 locations and grabbed $5.4 million, brining its total to $6.9 million. That marked the best-grossing weekend in A24’s young history as the movie becomes one of the break-out specialty films of the year.

Open Road’s faith-based Little Boy, the weekend’s only other new release besides Adaline, summoned just $2.8 million from 1,045 locations, to finish outside the top ten.

Further down the rankings, Warners debuted the Russell Crowe-directed period drama, The Water Diviner, a reconsideration of the Gallipoli campaign of 1915, in 320 locations, where it attracted an estimated $1.25 million. In its initial run, the movie attracted an older audience, 85 percent of whom were more than 35 years old, nearly evenly divided between women and men. Overall, they awarded the movie an A-minus Cinemascore.

Avengers: Age of Ultron, the latest installment from Disney’s Marvel unit, exploded in its international opening, taking in $201.2 as it debuted at the international box office. It was the number one movie in all the territories in which it opened, representing 55 percent of the entire international market, exceeding the first installment in the series by 44 percent in today’s exchange rate, according to Disney’s calculations.

Watch a video on the making of ‘Furious 7′ below: