‘Fate of the Furious’ debuts with record worldwide opening weekend

Friday, 21 April 2017 00:00 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

01Actors Tyrese Gibson, Nathalie Emmanuell, Vin Diesel and Ludacris attend ‘The Fate Of The Furious’ New York premiere at Radio City Music Hall in New York, U.S. April 8, 2017. REUTERS 

The Fate of the Furious came in just a bit under $100 million once actual arrived, putting the film’s domestic opening at $98.78 million. However, its international performance actually improved as the film brought in a record $433.2 million from 63 international markets for a record $532 million global box office debut. 

Weekend recap

It was close, but just by a hair Universal’s The Fate of the Furious topped $100 million at the domestic box office, leading the Easter weekend charge and becoming the second 2017 release to top the century mark over its three-day opening. More importantly, on top of its North American debut, the film premiered in over 60 international markets where it brought in a record $432.3 million, resulting in a record $532.5 million worldwide debut. 

With an estimated $100.2 million, The Fate of the Furious secured the #1 spot at the domestic box office, delivering on industry expectations. The film scored an “A” CinemaScore from opening day audiences which were 58% male vs. 42% female. Of that audience, 50% were under the age of 25 and further demographics show the opening weekend audience was made up of 41% Caucasian moviegoers, 26% Hispanic, 19% African American and 11% Asian. This makes for the second time a film in the Fast and Furious franchise has debuted with over $100 million and there are more to come with Fast and Furious 9 planned for 2019 and a tenth instalment set for a 2021 release. 

Internationally is where the majority of the Fate of the Furious story will be told as it broke the international opening record, previously held by Jurassic World with $316.7 million, as it brought in a massive $432.3 million from 63 international markets. Combined with the $100.2 million domestic opening this gives the film a record $532.5 million worldwide debut, breaking the previous record of $529 million held by none other than Star Wars: The Force Awakens. With this weekend’s grosses, the Fast and Furious franchise has now amassed just shy of $4.5 million billion worldwide from all eight of its feature films. 

Highlights for the film’s international debut begin with the fact it was the #1 film in all 60+ territories where it opened, among which it was the largest opening in 17 of those territories: Argentina, China, Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Malaysia, Middle East, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Portugal, South Africa, UAE, Venezuela and Vietnam. The largest of all of this weekend’s openings is the estimated $190 million the film brought in from China, which is the largest three-day opening weekend of all-time in China and, of course, the biggest Hollywood opening of all-time. Top grossing territories include: 03

  •  China - $190 million
  •  Mexico - $17.8 million
  •  UK and Ireland - $17 million
  •  Russia - $14.1 million
  •  Germany - $13.6 million
  •  Brazil - $12.8 million
  •  France - $10.5 million
  •  Korea - $10.5 million
  •  India - $10.4 million
  •  Taiwan - $9.7 million
  •  Australia - $9.6 million
  •  Middle East Combined - $9.3 million
  •  Indonesia - $9 million
  •  Argentina - $8.3 million
  •  Malaysia - $6.8 million
  •  Italy - $6.7 million
  •  Spain - $6.1 million
  •  Colombia - $5 million
  •  Thailand - $4.7 million
  •  Panama - $4.6 million

The Fate of the Furious has five more territories where it is set to open in the Philippines followed by an April 20 opening in Serbia, April 21 in Poland and Romania and an April 28 opening in Japan. 

Elsewhere in the domestic top five, The Boss Baby and Beauty and the Beast continued their solid week-to-week holds, both dropping just over 40% for estimated $15.5 million and $13.6 million weekends respectively. Beauty and the Beast also added to its impressive worldwide haul this weekend, bringing in an additional $22 million internationally as its worldwide cume climbs to $1.043 billion, making it the 22nd largest worldwide release of all-time. 

Sony’s Smurfs: The Lost Village finished in fourth position with an estimated $6.5 million as it dropped 51% in its second weekend as its domestic cume now stands at $24.7 million. Rounding out the top five is WB’s Going in Style, also in its second weekend, which brought in an estimated $6.35 million, signalling a 47% drop and a domestic cume of $23.3 million.

Outside the top five, Fox Searchlight’s expansion of Gifted didn’t exactly light the box office on fire as it played in 1,146 theaters (+1,090) and brought in an estimated $3 million ($2,618 PTA). Gifted will continue to expand to around ~1,600 theaters next weekend. 

Also, for the seventh weekend in a row (a.k.a. every subsequent weekend since its release eight weeks ago), Universal and Blumhouse’s Get Out had the smallest drop within the top ten. This weekend it dipped just 28% for an estimated $2.9 million as its domestic cume now stands at $167.5 million. 

A few other weekend highlights include Kong: Skull Island, which brought in an estimated $2.67 million and has now surpassed $160 million domestically and Logan, which brought in an estimated $1.9 million and has now topped $220 million domestically. 

 

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