‘Hobbs & Shaw’ is No. 1 but trails pace of ‘Fast & Furious’

NEW YORK >> The first spinoff of the 18-year-old “Fast & Furious” franchise, “Hobbs & Shaw,” sped away with $180.8 million in its worldwide debut, including $60.8 million domestically — a strong opening that dethroned “The Lion King” after a two-week reign at No. 1 but couldn’t match the box-office pace of recent “Fast & Furious” films.

“Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” was crafted as a buddymovie left turn for the car-mad franchise. It teams two franchise regulars, Dwayne Johnson’s federal agent Luke Hobbs and mercenary Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), for an adventure outside the previous eight films. Those will resume in May with “Fast & Furious 9.”

The deviation came with a slight risk for Universal Pictures. The “Fast & Furious” films have developed into one of the most bankable series in Hollywood. The last two entries each grossed more than $1 billion. “The Fate of the Furious” took in $1.2 billion in 2017. “Furious 7” made $1.5 billion in 2015.

The opening for “Hobbs & Shaw,” while right on expectations, is the smallest domestic debut for a “Fast & Furious” film since 2006’s “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.” But the $200 million release is aiming to do its largest damage abroad; it grossed $120 million internationally over the weekend. That’s without China, where “Fast & Furious” films have excelled. It opens there August 23.

Jim Orr, distribution chief for Universal, pointed to strong audience response, across demographics, to “Hobbs & Shaw” as evidence of its widespread support and playability as a crowd-pleaser through the doldrums of August. While the film scored a 67% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences gave it a 90%. The CinemaScore was A-minus.

“It’s super encouraging and really tells about how broad this franchise plays,” said Orr. “We are obviously all extraordinarily excited to