‘F9’ Easily Speeds To The Top Of The Box Office Charts, Smashes Pandemic Records With $70 Million Debut
If there was any lingering concern about movie theaters coming back in a big way as we come out of the coronavirus pandemic,F9just smashed right through them.
Universal’s latest installment of theFast and Furioussaga had no trouble speeding to the top of the box office charts and smashing pandemic records. In fact, the blockbuster action sequel had such an impressive debut (all things considered) that it’s the biggest opening weekend sinceStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalkerin 2019.
Varietyhas theF9box office pulling in around $70 million in its opening weekend, which is more than enough to surpass the previous pandemic box office opening set byA Quiet Place Part IIat the end of May. That’s also more than the opening weekend haul ofFast and Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw, which only had a $60 million opening weekend. As a point of comparison,The Fate of the Furiouslanded a $98 million opening weekend back in 2017. So even with the pandemic,F9still performed very well.
In a fun bit of trivia,F9did so well in the drive-in box office arena thatForbesreported it boosted the box office performance of Nobody by 3,016% in its 13th weekend on the charts. Playing in just 110 theaters right now, the drive-in boost breaks down to a $4,545 per-theater average. That doesn’t mean that everyone who sawF9stuck around forNobody, but it’s certainly helpful to Universal’s bottom dollar for the action flick starringBob Odenkirk.
The Rest of the Box Office
Filling out the rest of the box office charts, we haveA Quiet Place Part IIstill holding strong with another $6.2 million over the weekend. After sitting in theaters for five weeks, the sci-fi horror sequel sits at a domestic total of $136 million. That’s not too far from the $188 million domestic haul that the original movie received, but since the sequel is slated tohit Paramount+ 45 days after its theatrical release date, that could end up hurting the final numbers for the sequel.
Taking third place is Lionsgate’s action comedy sequelThe Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguardwith $4.8 million in its second weekend. That’s a bit of a steep drop, with 57% less than the opening weekend. SinceThe Hitman’s Bodyguardended up with a $75 million domestic box office take back in 2017, it seems like this one will be a disappointment, so any hopes for another awkwardly titled sequel may be dashed.
In fourth place is yet another sequel withPeter Rabbit 2: The Runawaylanding an estimated $4.8 million. In fact, the numbers appear to be so close that thePeter Rabbitsequel could swap spots withThe Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguardwhen the final count comes in.
Finally, Disney rounds out the top 5 withCruellaearning $3.7 million in its fifth weekend. It’s hard to say how good or bad that is for Disney since the movie is also available on Disney+ Premier Access for an addition $30 fee. But it probably doesn’t matter since Disney isalready developing aCruellasequel.
One film that notably didn’t even make it to the top 5 wasIn the Heights, Warner Bros.' splashy musical movie that was billed as a big summer event. The Jon M. Chu-directed musical lost over 1,000 theaters in its third week, perExhibitor Relations, falling over 47% with a meager $2.2 million this week. That brings its total to $24 million, which is sadly a disappointing number for a film that was marketed by Warner Bros. as the big return to theaters.
This coming weekend will shake up the box office a little bit with the arrival ofThe Boss Baby: Family BusinessandThe Forever Purgein theaters. However, the animated sequelwill also be available on Peacock, so that’s bound to keep the box office take from being as big as it otherwise might have been. Plus, audiences might be enticed to stay home with the release ofThe Tomorrow Waron Amazon Prime and thefirst chapter of theFear Street trilogyat Netflix. But the real draw will come when Marvel Studios returns to theaters onJuly 9withBlack Widow, even ifreactions have been mixed so far.
