“The Fate of the Furious” zoomed to $10.4 million at the Thursday box office from 3,310 theaters, with showings starting at 7 p.m.
In comparison, “Furious 7” earned $15.8 million at the previews on Thursday when it opened in 2015, while “Fast & Furious 6” grossed $6.5 million at the Thursday box office in 2013.
It’s practically a given that “Fate” will join “Beauty and the Beast” on the list of $100+ million domestic openings in 2017. But while Universal is staying cautious with their projections and keeping it to around $100 million, independent trackers have turned up their numbers from $110 million three weeks ago to as much as $125 million this week.
Directed by “Straight Outta Compton” filmmaker F. Gary Gray, “Fate of the Furious” follows Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) as he is blackmailed into turning against his crew by the mysterious villain Cipher (Charlize Theron). Confused and hurt by their leader’s betrayal, Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and the rest of the team must band together to stop Dom and Cipher with the unexpected help of their former adversary, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham). The film currently has a 65 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
There are two targets “Fate and the Furious” will be looking to break this weekend. The first is the franchise-record $147 million opening made by the film’s 2015 predecessor, “Furious 7,” which was released following the death of longtime star Paul Walker and saw his character, Brian O’Conner, drive off into the distance. The second target is the $174 million opening made by “Beauty and the Beast” last March, the benchmark for domestic openings in 2017 so far.
“Fate” will also have the advantage of being the biggest release this month, with no tentpole releases expected to stand in its way until “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” arrives on May 5. Next weekend sees the release of A24’s action comedy “Free Fire” and Disney’s nature documentary “Born in China.” On April 28, EuropaCorp and STX will release “The Circle,” a tech thriller starring Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, John Boyega, and Bill Paxton in his final film role.
“Fate” already surpassed its predecessor at the Chinese box office, including previews. “Furious 7” earned RMB 398.9 million, or $64 million according to exchange rates in April 2015. It also set a record for most revenue earned from midnight previews, earning RMB 56.5 million ($8.2 million) to zoom past ‘Furious 7”s RMB 52.5 million ($8.5 million in 2015).
All 8 'Fast & Furious' Movies, Ranked Worst to Best (Photos)
Your favorite adult cartoon series is back. And it is your favorite. It’s the action franchise that shows no signs of slowing down or losing its way, the perfect juxtaposition of gleaming pop art, lowbrow speed thrills, and character-based myth-building. The "Fast and Furious" films position themselves in a defiantly interconnected world where everybody is in your crew, you’re all going to get stupid rich, and nobody gets left behind. Because “family” or whatever. Here’s how they stack up, from worst to best.
8. 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
Your little B-movie was a giant hit. The studio demands a sequel. You say, “Duh… OK,” and remake the first film, only with more of the humorless, tough guy posturing that made it seem camp. The action is rote, the drama is dull, and this franchise that didn’t know what it wanted to be yet took itself way too seriously. If it were a sentient being, it would be that guy who still wears Affliction t-shirts and constantly threatens other men for looking at him the wrong way.
7. Fast & Furious (2009)
The franchise shifts back into the snarl it just can’t seem to shake after the giddy, hydraulic bounce of "Tokyo Drift." But at least the action is ridiculous, as wacky stunts involving gigantic moving objects like buses and oil tankers steal focus from the street racing. The plot: This heist and that heist and who cares, but it’s also the first of the bunch to make you wonder if you might be starting to give a damn about these characters. When Letty fake-dies, suddenly you do.
6. The Fast and the Furious (2001)
Crime and punishment and street racing, when all the filmmakers knew was that they wanted to go vroom and introduce a crew of people who were merely extensions of automobiles. This makes it sort of like the human-growth-hormone remake of David Cronenberg’s "Crash," where all the kinky sex is replaced by glowering and monologues about pitiable half-men who have to take the bus to work.
5. The Fate of the Furious (2017)
Mega-hacker Charlize Theron creates the gnarliest of Manhattan traffic jams by remotely accessing a bunch of keyless ignitions, setting up entire future sequels that bypass the need for human drivers altogether. But if those robo-cars can smash into each other, fly out of skyscrapers, and skid across the Russian ice while being chased by nuclear subs as gloriously as in this eighth installment, that’s something to keep in mind when it’s time to renegotiate actor contracts. #whateverfamily
4. Furious 7 (2015)
"Fast Five" reinvented the franchise, turning it into an all-quadrant cinema event, and the ending of "Fast & Furious 6" approached epic proportions, so all "Furious 7" had to do was keep the party going. Then Paul Walker died, necessitating reshoots and imaginative narrative solutions. The result was a moving tribute to the actor amid the bombast of flying cars and ever-more absurd stunt action, a middle finger to Death.
3. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
The franchise was directionless, so they started from scratch with the cast, aimed for Japan and brought in the invigorating presence of director Justin Lin (who poached the character of Han from his own earlier film "Better Luck Tomorrow" like it was always meant to be). The result is a bridge between boredom and blammo, the first of the films to allow for outlandish style and self-aware silliness. It set the template for what the series would become.
2. Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
Implausible to the point of breakage, the sixth installment seamlessly grafted together the solid muscle of "Fast Five," the earnest character development that had previously seemed laughable (the “Family” drinking game reaches its blackout point here), stunts to shame all other stunts, and an operatic, heartbreaking ending nobody saw coming. RIP Giselle (Gal Gadot); you’ll probably make a very good Wonder Woman.
1. Fast Five (2011)
One of the best action movies of the new century, the one that made art-house snobs finally take notice of this franchise. It’s full of brute force and nerve, car tricks to make you stand up and yell, a truly exciting heist plot, and character friction between The Rock and Vin Diesel that turned into a real-life diva feud of Crawford-and-Davis proportions. Everybody doesn’t like something, but nobody doesn’t like "Fast Five."
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How does ”The Fate of the Furious“ stack up to the previous ones in nitro-loaded series?
Your favorite adult cartoon series is back. And it is your favorite. It’s the action franchise that shows no signs of slowing down or losing its way, the perfect juxtaposition of gleaming pop art, lowbrow speed thrills, and character-based myth-building. The "Fast and Furious" films position themselves in a defiantly interconnected world where everybody is in your crew, you’re all going to get stupid rich, and nobody gets left behind. Because “family” or whatever. Here’s how they stack up, from worst to best.
