'The Fate of the Furious' debuted in super-high gear this weekend, taking in $100.2 million on North American screens and roaring to record global rev
‘The Fate of the Furious’ debuted in super-high gear this weekend, taking in $100.2 million on North American screens and roaring to record global revenues of more than a half-billion dollars, industry.
Exhibitor Relations said that the latest chapter in Universal Studio’s ‘Fast and Furious’ series accounted for nearly two-thirds of North American revenues over the three-day Easter weekend, leaving previous frontrunner ‘The Boss Baby,’ a Fox/DreamWorks animation, in its dust with just $15.5 million in sales.
Behind megastars Vin Diesel and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, the latest ‘Furious’ film opened exceptionally well in the rest of the world. Led by China, which set a three-day record of $190 million, the film brought in $432.3 million in some 60 countries. It was the No. 1 film everywhere.
The $532.5 million global debut, once North American revenues added in, would break the record of $529 million held by ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens.’ It would also surpass such other box-office monsters as ‘Jurassic World’ ($524.9 million) and ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2’ ($483.2 million).
The film, directed by F. Gary Gray of ‘Straight Outta Compton’ fame, also features Charlize Theron, Tyrese Gibson and hip-hop star Ludacris. In it, Diesel’s Dom Toretto character is coerced to join forces with a cyberterrorist played by Theron, who turns him against his team. For all its strong showing, the manic muscle-car-filled film earned nearly a third less in its first North American weekend than the previous “Fast and Furious” chapter, which drew $147.2 million.
But Universal is not about to apply the brakes: additional ‘Furious’ chapters are planned for release in 2019 and 2021.
