The ninth movie in the Fast & Saga, accurately titled F9, is largely being framed as a return to the movies in America, but overseas it’s already having a monster showing in another market. The final trailer for the long-delayed Fast and Furious movie was an emotional one, giving fans of the action series plenty to look forward to its June 25 release stateside.
But the movie is already out in China and a handful of other overseas markets, and according to reports, the film is having the biggest release of any film since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
#F9 opened with $59.1M (380M RMB) in China, the biggest MPA opening day of the pandemic and the 2nd biggest of the pandemic behind Detective Chinatown 3.
The running cumulative total today sits at $69.8M.
— Brandon Katz (@Great_Katzby) May 21, 2021
Those big numbers are even in spite of a late cancelation of a major F9 event in China. According to Variety, the film’s opening was marred by a “threat” to a promotional event in Shanghai on Thursday.
On Friday, “Fast & Furious 9” comfortably raced to the top of the box office chart, scoring RMB231 million ($35.8 million) by 5.30pm local time, and claiming an 88% market share, according to data from ticket sales agency Maoyan. That gave it a running total of RMB292 million ($45.3 million) including sneak previews and midnight screenings.
It’s certainly a good sign for the film’s chances of leading a similar box office resurgence in the United States. With vaccinations continuing and more people feeling comfortable at indoor spaces in public as things progress, it’s looking more like the long wait for F9 will pay off both for moviegoers but for the studios who decided to wait out the worst of the pandemic with the movie still in the can. The trick for the next few weeks will be avoiding spoilers. No one tell us how or why Han is alive. No one! Leave us that small sliver of magic. We’ve waited so long already.
