The newest Fast & Furious movie, F9, will be the first pandemic release to surpass $500 million globally. The film, which had a staggered premiere through multiple countries, is the ninth installment in the franchise and the first film back for former resident Fast & Furious director Justin Lin. The film follows the same old crew, including Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, and more, while adding John Cena to the fray as Dom's brother.
The film industry has been attempting to cope with the effects of the pandemic shutdown for over a year now, to varying degrees of success. The shutdown, which saw both temporary and some permanent closure of theaters, led to humungous financial and logistical nightmares for the film industry. The result is a complex film release schedule, with plenty of 2020 films finally premiering after delays alongside previously scheduled 2021 films that are sticking to their plans. Many film studios have relegated their biggest blockbuster hits to dual releases in both theaters and streaming, much to many filmmakers’ disapproval. Other studios have attempted to bridge the gap between streaming and theaters, like with Disney+’s Premier Access. On the other hand, some films have held out for theater-only releases with success, such as A Quiet Place Part II.
As reported by Deadline, F9 joins the successful pandemic theater-only releases as the first Hollywood pandemic movie to pass $500 million at the international box offices this week. The global cumulative gross through Sunday of this week is a whopping $491.5 million. F9 is also the first Hollywood film released since 2019 to achieve this goal. Globally, it is the third film to have passed $500 million, joining the ranks of Chinese films Hi, Mom and Detective Chinatown 3. F9’s boost in the box office rankings has been partially attributed to its staggered release in international markets, with releases in certain countries still to come.
Though F9’s earnings are impressive, it may not keep the third-place spot by the end of the year. There are plenty more blockbusters slated for this year, including three MCU movies (in addition to the soon upcoming Black Widow) and the sweeping action sci-fi, Dune. Due to the gradual reopening of theaters, and the growing excitement from patrons to return, a rise in box office numbers generally is likely. This is aided, of course, by the continuous rolling out of the vaccine across the world. Although, with new variants of COVID and certain countries going back and forth on their policies, it is unclear if this hybrid-release stage for movies will be just a phase.
This achievement comes as no real surprise considering the Fast & Furious franchise has always done incredibly well, especially in international markets. And the franchise isn’t slowing down just yet, with two more films to finish the Fast Saga in the works after F9, bringing the total number of main films to 11. The franchise, however, also plans to increase its world-building by releasing more spin-offs akin to Hobbs & Shaw and the animated television show Fast & Furious: Spy Racers.
Source: Deadline