Universal Pictures is reporting that the F9 box office results for this weekend signal that moviegoers are ready to return to theaters en masse. The ninth installment in the Fast & Furious franchisewas the No. 1 movie in the world this weekend.
The highly-anticipated film earned $70 million in North America this weekend. That F9 box office figure marks the highest-grossing opening weekend since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (released at Christmas 2019) and pushes the global total to $405 million.
F9 has already sped past records internationally and this weekend added 22 new No. 1 opening markets for a total of 45 territories in release and an international total estimated to reach $335 million.
The overseas weekend gross of $38 million includes new entrants Mexico, the UK and Brazil and is estimated to result in a global weekend of $108 million. The film opened in Mexico at No. 1 with an estimated $10.7 million and is the biggest pandemic opening including previews above Godzilla vs. Kong and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.
In the UK and Ireland after Thursday and Friday subsequentially broke the record of highest week-day and weekend-day gross since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, Saturday surpassed Friday’s record again, delivering $2.6 million.
F9 is the first film to gross over $2.6 million in a single day since Sonic the Hedgehog did so in February 2020. The total weekend in the UK and Ireland is estimated at $8.3 million.
F9 had an outstanding opening day in Brazil on Thursday, ranking No. 1 and becoming the highest-opening day of the pandemic, surpassing the new Conjuring movie that opened on a national holiday Thursday. The movie is predicted to open at No. 1 with $2.6 million there.
Elsewhere in Latin America, the movie opened with $1.7 million in Central America, the biggest opening weekend of the pandemic. Colombia debuted with an estimated $1.7 million with Wednesday delivering the highest preview day of the franchise.
Norway on Friday had the best opening day of the pandemic and the best opening day of the Fast Saga. The weekend there is estimated at $1.1 million, which would be, excluding previews, the second-biggest opening weekend of the franchise just below Furious 7.
The F9 box office also raced to a pandemic-era record opening of $5.5 million at IMAX theaters in North America. With a running total of $30 million in IMAX box office already, F9 delivered $6.5 million globally in IMAX this weekend, including a further $1 million internationally.
“‘F9’ continues to race around the globe — drawing audiences back to theaters, lighting up the box office, and silencing those who doubted the power of an exclusive theatrical release,” said Rich Gelfond, CEO of IMAX.
“Universal’s smart, gutsy release strategy for ‘F9’ has successfully laid the cornerstone for rebuilding the Hollywood slate, with a remarkable pipeline of blockbuster films ahead into 2022 and beyond.”
In F9, Vin Diesel‘s Dom Toretto is leading a quiet life off the grid with Letty and his son, little Brian, but they know that danger always lurks just over their peaceful horizon. This time, that threat will force Dom to confront the sins of his past if he’s going to save those he loves most.
His crew joins together to stop a world-shattering plot led by the most skilled assassin and high-performance driver they’ve ever encountered: a man who also happens to be Dom’s forsaken brother, Jakob (John Cena).
F9 sees the return of Justin Lin as director, who helmed the third, fourth, fifth and sixth chapters of the series when it transformed into a global blockbuster. The action hurtles around the globe – from London to Tokyo, from Central America to Edinburgh, and from a secret bunker in Azerbaijan to the teeming streets of Tbilisi.
The film stars returning cast members Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Jordana Brewster, Nathalie Emmanuel and Sung Kang, along with Oscar winner Helen Mirren and Oscar winner Charlize Theron.