It’s Fate that rules the cineplexes
LOS ANGELES — Fate has spoken. Universal’s latest addition to The Fast and the Furious franchise, The Fate of the Furious, is what audiences worldwide want to see as the film’s weekend debut is projected to be the biggest global opening of all time.
Fate, ( aka Furious 8) brought in about $ 99 million in U. S. and Canadian theaters, below analyst projections. Still, it’s the second- biggest domestic opening of the year, behind Beauty and the Beast’s $ 175 million bow. It’s also the second- biggest debut of the franchise, behind its 2015 predecessor.
Combined with the film’s massive international opening of $ 432.3 million — well above the amount analysts initially projected — Furious 8 surpassed Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ record- setting $ 529 million worldwide opening with $ 532.5 million.
Since 2001, The Fast and the Furious has “evolved” from a B- movie about street racing in Los Angeles into one of Hollywood’s biggest global franchises, tallying $ 3.9 billion in worldwide box- office sales. Its diverse cast — with Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson and Michelle Rodriguez and new antagonist Charlize Theron — James Bond- style stunts and themes of brotherly love are credited with drawing a healthy mix of moviegoers who’ve been loyal to the franchise for 16 years and counting.
Furious 8 opened No. 1 in every market where it was released in Universal’s most ambitious global release to date, with the film playing in nearly 23,000 theaters around the world. It had Imax’s biggest April worldwide opening ever and is now the fourth- biggest worldwide Imax opening of all time. The film’s massive debut also marks the highestgrossing opening ever for a black director, F. Gary Gray.
And it’s worth pointing out that people are enjoying the highly anticipated flick, following a year with a number of disappointing Hollywood sequels. Though critics on Rotten Tomatoes couldn’t bring themselves to muster more than a 64 percent rating, moviegoers ( 58 percent male; 50 percent under 25) gave the picture an A CinemaScore.
The domestic audience was also diverse — 41 percent of the audience members were white, and 59 percent were people of color ( 26 percent Hispanic, 19 percent black, 11 percent Asian and 3 percent other), according to Universal.
As for the rest of the box office, far behind in second place was DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox’s The Boss Baby, with $ 16 million in its third week. The family flick has packed its domestic crib with about $ 117 million to date.
Beauty and the Beast, the latest Disney remake, landed in third with about $ 14 million in its fifth week. The film passed the global $ 1 billion mark over the weekend ahead of its opening in Japan today.
In fourth was Columbia’s Smurfs: The Lost Village with $ 6.7 million in its second week. The animated blue folk have pulled in about $ 25 million domestically to date.
Rounding out the top five was Warner Bros.’ remake of Going in Style with about $ 6.3 million in its second week. The comedy directed at more mature audiences has grossed $ 23.3 million to date.