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Kim Hollis: This latest release has basically matched The Hunger Games with regards to box office. Do you think it's equal to The Hunger Games or do you think this weekend's result is a one-off?

Edwin Davies: Internationally, I think that the Fast and Furious series is way ahead of The Hunger Games, since the last two installments outstripped the last two outings for Katniss, and I'd be willing to bet that Furious 7 will end up with a higher international number than Mockingjay Part 2, but domestically I think it's harder to judge. Hunger Games always had a finite story with a clear endpoint (even if they decided to push it back a year by splitting the last film in half), so it's had the opportunity to shine very brightly for a short period of time. The Fast and Furious series has built its audience over more than a decade, and while I think that this entry will put it closer to the rarefied air of The Hunger Games and other super blockbusters, I'm not sure if it will be able to maintain that past this film without the extraordinary circumstances that made its success possible.

Felix Quinonez: I think that internationally, The F&F series has eclipsed the Hunger Games but domestically I see it finishing closer to Mockingjay Part 1 than Catching Fire.

Ryan Kyle: They are two different beasts. Hunger Games is a definitive franchise based on books. The Fast and Furious franchise is open-ended and not based on any novel that you can read beforehand to know what happens. Overseas, Furious is by far the winner. Domestically, Hunger Games trounces Fast with the three Hunger Game films outgrossing the first six Fast movies. Also, Hunger Games makes its real money in product licensing in a way that Furious will never match.

Michael Lynderey: They occupy different spaces in the culture and their receptions, while intersecting on the same level now, will go back onto different roads soon enough. As much as I like the Fast franchise (and prefer it to Hunger Games, which I like also), this result is definitely a one-off, and I think the next film (if there is one) will open to lower numbers. While the Hunger Games films are just continuously massive simply due to the nature of their existence and fanbase, the Fast and the Furious films have come down a long and winding road since the 1955 release of the original film (which had nothing to do with the current franchise, but the studio did have to formally secure the rights to the title). In many ways, I expect the Fast films to outlive the other franchise, at least in so much as we could still be talking about a new sequel ten years from now.

Kim Hollis: The Longest Ride, the latest adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, opened to $13 million. What do you think of this result?

Felix Quinonez: I think this is a fine result. Without any big names or a release date that benefits a "date movie" it would have been unrealistic to expect it to really break out. When you add in the fact that this seems like the millionth Sparks adaptation and that it has horrible reviews, it could have been a lot worse.

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