NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 08: Actors Tyrese Gibson, Vin Diesel and Ludacris attend "The Fate Of The Furious" New York Premiere at Radio City Music Hall on April 8, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
I don’t know how and I don’t know why, but Universal Pictures’ The Fate of the Furious broke the record for biggest opening weekend at the worldwide box office with a staggering, astronomical and outlandish $532 million. That holy s— number includes $98.8 million from the U.S. and Canada and $433.2 million from 63 international territories this weekend. How Fate of the Furious broke the previous record – Star Wars: The Force Awakens at $529 million – is beyond me. It’s a little more understandable that the film beat Jurassic World ($316.7 million) for biggest all-time international weekend.
Thanks to Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel and the rest of the crew, Universal has passed $1 billion at the international box office. It is the second studio to reach this milestone in 2017 and it is the 11th year Universal has topped the mark, though this is the second-fastest they’ve reached it after 2015.
Clearly, we love our cars and explosions, but it’s not just us. The movie opened No. 1 in every single territory it was available and set all-time opening weekend record in 19 territories!
China grossed a jaw-dropping $192.1 million, making The Fate of the Furious the biggest three-day opening weekend of all-time and the biggest Hollywood opening of all-time there. It is the second-biggest opening weekend of all films, all-time behind local title The Mermaid (which included four full days of previews over Chinese New Year).
I’m not a huge fan of the Fast & Furious movies, but I respect that they don’t take themselves too seriously and that the franchise keeps churning out box office behemoths. It’s impressive to say the least.
