Universal’s “Fast X” is not bringing in the box office riches that past “Fast & Furious” films used to in North America with a $67 million domestic opening, but it is still finding great success internationally with a $253 million overseas launch to earn $319 million worldwide.
In the U.S., “Fast X” isn’t showing signs that it will top the $173 million final total of its predecessor “F9,” a film that came out during the early stages of box office rebuilding in summer 2021. Its $67.5 million opening has met pre-release projections but is below the $70 million launch of “F9.”
The film also received a B+ on CinemaScore and 82% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes. With only one weekend of premium format play, that good-but-not-excellent audience reception may not be enough to give the film legs to reach $200 million domestically.
But “Fast & Furious” historically has been a franchise that has earned its tentpole status thanks to strong play throughout the world with over $5 billion in lifetime franchise international grosses. “Fast X” is demonstrating that again as its worldwide opening is topping that of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and stands sixth among all films in the post-shutdown era.
China, of course, leads the way among all global markets with $78.3 million. While that is 42.5% below the the $136 million opening of “F9,” that is still the highest Chinese opening for a Hollywood film this year, a sign that “Fast & Furious” is still a draw in the country even as Chinese audiences have largely lost interest in American films.
Meanwhile, “Fast X” is outperforming “F9” in several major markets, including a $16.7 million opening in Mexico and strong results in Brazil, India, Germany, U.K., Japan and South Korea. Several of those markets are also showing stronger audience reception to the film than in the U.S., with an 8.9/10 rating on China’s Maoyan and 94% positive on Korea’s CGV Egg score.
“Fast X” will need to keep legging out internationally against tough upcoming competition like “The Little Mermaid” and “The Flash” to turn a theatrical profit against its franchise-high $340 million budget.
In second place on the box office charts is Marvel Studios’ “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” which keeps holding well with $32 million in its third weekend. That’s nearly identical to the $32.3 million third weekend of “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” last year, and unlike that film was able to do it without the help of premium format surcharges.
With a domestic total of $266 million domestic and $659 million worldwide, “Guardians Vol. 3” is on pace for a final box office total of $325-340 million domestic and around $800 million worldwide, a solid rebound for Marvel from the box office failure of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” that will put “Guardians Vol. 3” alongside last year’s solid results from “Thor: Love and Thunder” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
In third is Universal/Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” with $9.8 million in its seventh weekend, bringing the smash hit Nintendo movie’s total just shy of $550 million in North America. With $1.24 billion grossed worldwide, the film has now passed Pixar’s “Incredibles 2” to become the fourth-highest grossing animated film in box office history, sitting only behind Disney’s remake of “The Lion King” and its two “Frozen” films.
More to come…
