F9 is projected to break A Quiet Place 2's opening weekend box office record. After enduring a rough 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, movie theaters are experiencing a nice rebound in 2021. Thanks to the premieres of highly-anticipated films such as Godzilla vs. Kong and A Quiet Place Part II, the box office is starting to show signs of life again, which bodes well for exhibitors' longterm future. A Quiet Place 2 grossed over $100 million domestically, becoming the first title to reach that mark in the pandemic era.
The next major release of the summer is F9, which was delayed a year to ensure it got to play on the big screen. The franchise has long been a massive box office draw, with the previous two mainline entries each grossing over $1 billion worldwide. F9 already broke international box office records when it opened overseas back in May. It's been expected the film would also perform well domestically, and it's poised to rewrite the history books even more.
According to Box Office Pro, F9 is projected to earn approximately $67 million domestically in its opening weekend. That figure would be higher than A Quiet Place 2, which earned $47.5 million in its first three days (and $57 million for the extended Memorial Day weekend). If F9 matches these estimates, it will set a new pandemic era opening weekend record.
F9's box office projections are a further indication movie theaters are well on the road to recovery post-COVID. Especially as more people get vaccinated, general audiences are becoming more comfortable going back to the multiplex. While these predictions are very encouraging, the box office isn't quite back to a pre-pandemic normal just yet. The more recent Fast and Furious mainline films had opening weekends in the ballpark of $100 million domestically (with Furious 7 posting $147.1 million). That's probably the kind of debut Universal envisioned when they approved F9's $200 million budget, but considering the circumstances, the movie seems to be in great shape and it should be one of the biggest hits of the summer.
Should F9 break the record, its new mark may not stand for that long. Marvel's Black Widow is projected to open higher than F9 when it releases in July, and that's with the movie also being available on Disney+ Premier Access. For a time, it looked like movie theaters had a bleak future, and it was uncertain even the industry's largest chains would be able to survive. Fortunately, the box office is back on the right track and things should only go up from here. This is why some studios opted to delay their movies, rather than pursuing alternate distribution methods. Audiences will be able to experience F9 with a large crowd, the way it was meant to be seen.
Source: Box Office Pro
