Friday saw a 25% increase in box office revenue over the previous Friday.

Opening in huge numbers for the fourth entry in the franchise, and perhaps largely thanks to the return of Vin Diesel is this Friday's number one film, FAST AND FURIOUS, earning an estimated $30.1M on Friday alone. This number is astounding and will lead to a mammoth box office weekend for the film, showing that this franchise will be continuing for some time yet.

Dropping to number two is last Friday's number one champ, MONSTERS VS. ALIENS, which had to settle for a decent $8.9M in its second Friday. The film lost approximately 47% of its audience this Friday, but it should earn a healthy amount over the weekend and has already stashed away over $81M in box office since opening.

THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT held on surprisingly well amongst the new competition, particularly FAST AND FURIOUS, to grab an estimated $3.6M in its second Friday of release. The film lost 62% of its audience which is expected, but not too bad for a horror film in this day and age. The film has put away over $30M so far and will be another winner for the horror genre.

I LOVE YOU, MAN and KNOWING land in fourth and fifth spots with an estimated $2.7M and $2.6M respectively. The films have earned $44M and $52M respectively.

The only other opener for this Friday lands in sixth spot with an estimated $2.1M; ADVENTURELAND, the latest R-rated comedy offering from Miramax did not set the world on fire with its low box office take, but will likely do well over the weekend relative to its small budget.

The remaining films for Friday include: DUPLICITY ($1.4M), RACE TO WITH MOUNTAIN ($0.97M), 12 ROUNDS ($0.8M) and SUNSHINE CLEANING ($0.58M).

The North American box office took in an estimated total of $54 million for the whole of Friday 3rd April 2009.