Credit: Unsplash
I must confess that I never paid much attention to the Fast & Furious movies. I missed out on the first one, and since then, it has always been just a background noise for me. However, I do recognize that the franchise must be doing something right, considering there are now nine movies in the series, not to mention the various spin-offs. People seem to enjoy the combination of fast cars and explosive action, especially with the limited options available in theaters currently.
The newest installment in the Fast & Furious series, F9: The Fast Saga, had its premiere over the weekend and, like many recent movies, it made a splash at the box office by raking in $70 million in its domestic opening weekend. F9 not only achieved the highest box office numbers since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 but also surpassed the performance of 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. In total, F9 has grossed around $405 million worldwide so far.
What a weekend for the big screen! Thanks to the massive success of @UniversalPics‘s F9, 2.0 million moviegoers visited an @AMCTheatres from Thursday to Sunday in the U.S., with 2.5 million attendees globally. These are RECORD-BREAKING numbers since our theaters reopened. pic.twitter.com/Q6RrgHZNvc
— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) June 28, 2021
The release of F9 was initially planned for May 2020, but Universal decided to postpone it as soon as the pandemic began to worsen. This decision, although met with criticism from fans, investors, and even internal staff at the time, was seen as a precautionary measure to handle the uncertain situation.
“[Theaters] were quite upset with us because they thought that we were overreacting. Even people inside the company thought that we were a little crazy for doing it,” shared Donna Langley, chairwoman of Universal’s filmed entertainment group, in an interview with CNN Business in December. “But we just felt that it was better to plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
