As we prepare for Fast 9 to race into domestic cinemas this Friday, the film has already pulled in some serious coin overseas. The film is nearing the $300 million mark internationally, with $203 million of that haul coming from China alone and now its recent box office feats have allowed the franchise to land on a new ranking on the global box office chart.
According to "Variety", the Fast franchise has now surpassed the X-Men series to become the fifth-biggest property at the global box office with a current total of $6.2 billion across ten films. The Fast Saga now ranks next after Marvel, Harry Potter, James Bond, and Star Wars in terms of box office revenues. Making what the Fast franchise has accomplished a truly remarkable feat is that most of these other franchises are based on established IP. The Fast saga doesn't have a comic book or novels to fall back on with an established fanbase. This all began with a street racing film 20 years ago that cost $38 million to make and now the franchise has reached global box office heights that no one could ever imagine.
The first film, released in 2001, grossed $206.4 million worldwide while the low point for the franchise came with the third film, Tokyo Drift, which grossed $157.7 million globally. Once the original cast was brought back for 2009's Fast & Furious, that is when things truly took off. By Fast Five, which brought Dwayne Johnson to the franchise, the worldwide total for that film hit $630.1 million. From there the worldwide grosses kept increasing. Fast & Furious 6 grossed $789.3 million worldwide and Furious 7, which had to deal with the death of Paul Walker, shot things into the stratosphere with a total of $1.51 billion. Furious 7 remains not just the highest-grossing entry of this franchise, but one of the biggest movies in history. The Fate of the Furious came down a bit with $1.23 billion but with grosses like that, no one is complaining. Hell, even spinoff Hobbs & Shaw grossed $760.3 million worldwide. If you're wondering why they keep making these, the proof is in the numbers.
The news of The Fast Saga's new box office milestone comes as it heads into its opening in the U.S. Box office tracking has the film opening between $50-60 million while others are predicting a start of $70 million+ due to strong presales and moviegoers wanting to go see a true blockbuster on the big screen after being withheld from that experience for over a year due to the pandemic. Universal Pictures is keenly aware that, despite huge box office markets like Los Angeles and New York City being 100% open with no capacity limits, the same cannot be said for other locations such as Canada, which does cut into the potential financial take of the ninth film of the franchise. That being said, Fast 9 is performing well in these pandemic-influenced times and it's more than likely that the film will have the biggest opening of the pandemic box office. Currently, A Quiet Place Part II holds that distinction with a $48 million opening over its first three days and $58 million through the Memorial Day weekend. That film has grossed a pandemic best of $127.7 million to date in the States with a global take that has topped $224 million so far.
Are YOU surprised by The Fast Saga's global box office rank?