Box Office Preview: Fate of the Furious to race past The Circle

With only two new wide releases – Tom Hanks and Emma Waton’s cautionary tale, The Circle, and Eugenio Derbez-starring comedy How to Be a Latin Lover – arriving in theaters this week, Fate of the Furious looks set to cruise to No. 1 at the box office for the third week in a row. Here’s how the rest of the top 10 should look in the April 28-30 period:

1. The Fate of the Furious – $21 million

Films in this car-filled franchise tend to open strong but pull in lower numbers as the weeks go by. But seeing as how it’s in its third week, and the F8 box office performance has been hewing closer to Fast & Furious 6 rather than immediate predecessor Furious 7, expect another 40 percent decline, with the film bringing in $21 million this weekend, for a domestic total that’s just shy of $200 million. However on the international front, with the film finally opening in Japan this weekend, expect it to cross the $1 billion mark worldwide, making it the second film in the franchise to do so.

2. The Circle – $12 million

The Dave Eggers adaptation (co-written by the author himself) stars Tom Hanks (Sully), Emma Watson (Beauty and the Beast), and John Boyega (Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Pacific Rim 2), all of whom have recently opened movies to big numbers. However, while the star power and timely subject matter — Watson plays an employee of a social media company live streaming every aspect of her life as part of an experiment, bringing up questions of privacy and ethics — might attract viewers to the tech thriller’s 3,163 theater-opening, expect the film, which has earned negative-to-lukewarm reviews, to earn a modest $12 million.

3. The Boss Baby – $9 million

The Alec Baldwin-starring animated film continues to remain a family favorite, having seen a more gradual decline in the domestic box office, with last weekend only falling 20 percent. Expect the film to hit a targetted $9 million as it continues to make its way to $150 million domestic total.

4. Beauty and the Beast – $6.5 million

It’s a tale as old as time. Despite Belle and the gang’s enduring popularity carrying the film past the $1 billion mark worldwide, the live-action Disney film is now entering its seventh week, so expect its performance to continue to wane as it drops another 30 percent in the domestic market.

5. How to Be a Latin Lover – $4 million

The Eugenio Derbez-starring romantic comedy marks actor Ken Marino’s directorial debut and also features Salma Hayek, Raphael Alejandro, Kristen Bell, Raquel Welch, and Rob Lowe.The film sees Derbez play Maximo, the younger lover of an 80-year-old woman who dumps him for a younger man. Forced to move in with his estranged sister (Hayek) and her son (Alejandro), the luxury-seeking Maximo comes up with a plan to restore his wealthy lifestyle: seduce a widowed billionaire (Welch).

It’s also the second film from Panthelion Films (a Lionsgate and Televisa joint venture) whose last film, Instructions Not Included, also starred Derbez and proved to be a sleeper hit, earning $44 million domestically. But while Latin Lover is set to open in 1,118 theaters — triple Instructions‘ initial 348 — the dearth of marketing around Latin Lover should see it pull in $4 million this weekend, especially if Derbez’ dedicated fanbase shows up.

Outside the top five, BH Tilt (Blumhouse’s genre label) is set to release Sleight, which premiered at Sundance and sees a young street magician rely on his magic skills to save his kidnapped sister. Expect the J.D. Dillard-directed film to pull in $1 million from a 565-theater debut.

Elsewhere, James Gray’s The Lost City of Z returns for a third weekend, with a slightly bigger release (866 theaters). However, despite cracking the top 10 last weekend with an earning of $2.1 million from 614 locations, the film should pull in another $2 million over the next three days.