"Fast & Furious 9": biggest premiere in the covid-19 era 1:07
(CNN Business) -
The latest Fast & Furious movie shows our heroes launching a Pontiac Fiero into space.
But that was simply the second most impressive feat the film accomplished this weekend.
The first was the highest box office numbers at a premiere since the pandemic began.
"F9: The Fast Saga," the ninth film in the action franchise starring Vin Diesel, grossed approximately $ 70 million in its North American release this weekend, according to the film's studio Universal.
Not only did that number exceed expectations, but it is the biggest box office debut since "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" in 2019.
The film also posted a bigger opening weekend than the franchise's previous release, "Fast and Furious: Hobbs & Shaw," a spinoff that opened for $ 60 million in 2019. So, although "The Fate of the Furious, ”the eighth film in the series, made $ 98 million in 2017, the numbers for“ F9 ”are pretty solid, even by pre-pandemic metrics.
The big weekend also adds to the film's already strong global run.
"F9" has made $ 405 million worldwide since its international opening last month.
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The summer season has had its ups and downs at the box office thus far, but the performance of "F9" is important to an industry that is trying to recover from the covid outbreak that sent box office numbers plummeting.
The premiere of "F9" is also another success of the Fast & Furious franchise, which is one of the most popular brands in all of cinema.
The series has amassed more than $ 6 billion worldwide.
Victory weekend for theaters
The launch of "F9" was delayed several times due to covid-19.
In fact, Universal wasted no time shelving the film, which was originally scheduled for release in May 2020, as soon as the pandemic hit.
The move was unpopular at the time.
“[Theaters] were quite upset with us because they thought we were exaggerating.
Even people within the company thought we were a little crazy to do it, ”Donna Langley, president of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, told CNN Business in December.
"But we felt it was better to prepare for the worst and hope for the best."
"Of course now 2020 ... in hindsight ... it was the best decision we could have made," Langley added.
Obviously, even though the release of "F9" is good news, all things considered, the film industry still has a long way to go before it reaches some kind of normalcy.
But that's why the film's strong debut is so important - it's another step in the right direction.
What's Next?
Theaters will see if the noise around "F9" leads to more viewer traffic for the 4th of July holiday, a historically known movie-going weekend.
After that, Marvel's "Black Widow" hits theaters and at Disney + on July 9.
In case you just landed on this planet, Marvel Studios is the most popular blockbuster brand in the film industry, so this is very good news for theaters.
The big question in Hollywood is whether or not the momentum holds up at the box office.
No one is sure of the answer.
But theaters couldn't ask for a better marquee lineup over the next several weeks than an avenging superhero from Marvel and the Fast & Furious family.
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