Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw has locked down an August release date in China. Up until 2009, the Fast & Furious franchise was looked at as a fun little action series that performed well enough at the box office, but wasn’t exactly playing in blockbuster territory. That all changed with 2011’s Fast Five, which roared to $626 million at the global box office, with 66% of that coming overseas.
Since then, the franchise has only increased in global popularity, with 2015’s Furious 7 and 2017’s The Fate of the Furious both topping the $1 billion plateau worldwide. The overseas portion of the market has become increasingly important for the franchise, with Fate taking in 81% of its $1.2 billion tally outside of North America. After a total of eight Fast & Furious movies, which have collectively grossed $5.1 billion worldwide, the franchise is now getting its first spinoff with Hobbs & Shaw. Centered around the characters played by Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, the movie marks the Fast & Furious universe debut of Deadpool 2 helmer David Leitch, with Idris Elba and Vanessa Kirby - but not Keanu Reeves - also along for the ride.
Obviously, Universal is banking on Hobbs & Shaw dominating the box office overseas in order to justify spinning off two characters from the main franchise (and leaving Vin Diesel out in the cold in the process). It’s big (though hardly surprising) news then that the film has officially secured a release date in the critically important market of China. As reported by Deadline, Hobbs & Shaw has locked down August 23 for its Chinese roll out. The late August release means China will have to wait three weeks longer than America and most of the rest of the world to see the movie.
To give an idea of how huge China is for the Fast & Furious franchise, Fate of the Furious was the #2 overall movie in that country in 2017, grossing $392 million (vs. just $226 million grossed in North America). 2015’s Furious 7 was actually the #1 box office champ in China in that year, with $390 million grossed (vs. $353 million in North America). Both Statham and Johnson are themselves huge names in China, so the combination of their star power plus the popularity of the Fast & Furious brand could make for a massive haul for Universal when the film comes out in August.
As for 2019 so far, Avengers: Endgame has unsurprisingly been the big American movie in China, with $614 million at the box office (a big chunk of its staggering $2.7 billion global haul). In a demonstration of how the Chinese market can often embrace movies that didn’t do so well elsewhere, Bumblebee is the #2 American movie in China so far this year with $170 million (the Transformers spinoff only did $127 million in North America). It’s highly unlikely that Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw will come close to equaling Endgame’s tally in China, but just going by past history, it’s almost certain the film will perform well in the market, all but guaranteeing that Hobbs & Shaw will be back for more movie adventures down the road.
Source: Deadline
