Box Office: ‘F9’ Wins Weekend To Top $500 Million Worldwide

The global record for a Hollywood film has surpassed $500 million for the first and only time (well, December 2019). F9 is at the end. This is thanks to a slightly holiday-boosted second weekend in North American theaters. It was preceded by a month abroad in China. Justin Lin directed the flick, which earned $22million (-67%) in weekend one and $30 million over the Fri-Mon holiday for a total of $123million over 11 days. It’s a more considerable weekend drop than one might expect, although A) is not far behind the 57-62% drops of previous Fast Sagaflicks and (B) comes after strong weekday sales. It’s possible to argue that F9today viewers could have seen the movie on a Fri-Sun.

While it does not magically increase the drop 57% to $30 million from $70million, it gives some context for Black Widow this weekend. We’re still expecting a final domestic total between $155 and $165 million or even closer to Hobbs & Shaw ($174 million) if luck smiles. It will hold its own against the MCU prequel, and neither Space Jam (July 16th) nor Snake Eyes (July 16th) can break out. Those two tentpoles will be the only action biggies until Jungle Cruise (30th) and The Suicide Squad (6th). F9 had weak legs in May 2020, but not now.

Fast & Furiousearned $155m off a $71m debut in 2009. The Furious fate earned $226m from a FriSun launch of $99m in 2017. F9 is likewise not everyone’s favorite installment. And coming off the beloved Fate the Furious, a domestic total of $200m would have been a great result even in non-Covid times. From 2017, I believed F9 would be the first movie that surpassed $1 billion globally without exceeding $200 million domestically. While it is not likely, this idea still holds. The Vin Diesel vs. John Cena movie sequel was the first Hollywood movie since Star Wars($1.073 trillion) to reach $500 million worldwide.


It has (obviously) passed the $450 million cume of Godzilla Vs. Kong. (which opened with $5.5million in Japan) and will soon surpass the 500 million cume of Demon Slayer: The Movie ($400 million in Japan). It is behind China’s biggest New Year’s releases, Hi, Mom (which earned $825 million) and Detective Chinatown 3 (which earned $685 million, a debut price of $398.5million). The $216 million includes China. This is an excellent total for Hollywood movies, but it’s slightly disappointing when you consider Furious 7 and Fate of the Furious earned $392 million. It’s roughly on par with Hobbs & Shaw ($201 million in 2019).

Word-of-mouth was terrible due to the same sins of Detective Chinatown (an accent on retroactive continuity & worldbuilding over the present-tense narration). The following two chapters will not focus on Saw-like revelations about “Here’s the truth!”. As we saw with Rising of Skywalker, Spider-Man 3, and Spider-Man 3, respectively, this kind of narrative doesn’t work in China. Black Widow would be delighted to earn anywhere near $216 million in China. Captain Marvel earned $154 million while Spider-Man Far From Homemade $200 million in 2019. F9 has still to lose the global “championship Belt” for summer 2021 even if Black Widow surpasses $200 million in domestic sales since Bad Boys for Life.

- Advertisement -
Avatar photo
Samatha Vale
Samatha a senior writer for HC's entertainment team. She is an entreprenuer, mother and an excellent writer. She's also an avid reader, music enthusiast and all around inquisitive person - which is just a nice way of saying she's nosy.

Latest articles

Related articles