(Universal)

With “Beauty and the Beast” locking in the first $100+ million opening at the box office in 2017, it is expected to soon be joined by “The Fate of the Furious,” the eighth film in Universal’s unstoppable “Fast & Furious” franchise.

Early trackers project an opening weekend for “Fate” somewhere between $110-120 million. If it exceeds those expectations — which it is likely to do given the star power of its lead men, Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel — it would find itself in the same ballpark as the $135 million opening that “Fast & Furious 6” made in 2013.

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But the brass ring that “Fate” is aiming for is the whopping $191.9 million made domestically by its 2015 predecessor, “Furious 7.” Globally, “Furious 7” made $397.6 million in its opening weekend — still in the top five biggest openings of all-time — before blowing by the $1 billion mark in just 17 days and reaching a final cume of $1.5 billion. The film became one of the most anticipated releases of 2015 after the death of long-time “F&F” star Paul Walker, which resulted in “Furious 7” being delayed so Walker’s character, Brian O’Conner, could be written out of the series tastefully, and a tribute to Walker could be added to the end of the film.

Like “Furious 7,” “Fate” will have the benefit of being the biggest release in an April that otherwise has very little buzz. The only other major release next month is Sony Pictures Animations’ “Smurfs: The Lost Village,” which will come out a week before “Fate.” With the two films targeting different audiences and the latter half of April serving as a brief pause for major studios before “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” kicks off the summer blockbuster season, “The Fate of the Furious” will find itself with a good chance to try and match “Furious 7”‘s haul.

Also Read: 'Beauty and the Beast' Is a Hit in Russia Despite Gay LeFou

“The Fate of the Furious” will feature Charlize Theron as Cipher, a criminal who manages to turn Dominic Toretto (Diesel) against Luke Hobbs (Johnson), his wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and his former team. Shocked and confused by Dominic’s betrayal, Hobbs must rally the rest of the “Family” to stop him and Cipher.

Directed by F. Gary Gray (“Straight Outta Compton”) and written by longtime “F&F” scribe Chris Morgan, the film also stars Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson, Chris Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel and Kurt Russell. Diesel, Neal H. Moritz and Michael Fottrell are producers.

'Fate of the Furious': 8 Craziest Moments From First Trailer (Photos)

We finally got our first look at the eighth movie in the "Fast and Furious" franchise, dubbed "The Fate of the Furious." And the trailer was quite a doozie -- it showed us Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) turning on his family, as well as a parade of increasingly insane stunts and set pieces. So insane that street racing in Cuba seems positively mundane. Let's take a look.
Universal
The trailer opens with our heroes driving through a concrete wall and through a bombed-out town -- and apparently that's Roman's (Tyrese Gibson) fault. The carnage continues when Tej (Ludacris) summons a wrecking ball to wipe out a convoy of bad guys in spectacular fashion.
Universal
"The Fate of the Furious" is all about Dom's betrayal -- the team isn't going to let it slide. So they chase him down, and attempt to trap him by firing cables from five cars into his. But Dom easily does some kind of shenanigans to smash the other cars. In the process he kinda punches his own door off.
Universal
"The Fate of the Furious" will take the family to these icy wastes for a big chase that gets interrupted by, uh, a submarine. No, really, this movie is going to have a car chase that involves a submarine.
Universal
"Fate of the Furious" seems filled with stunts involving car doors, as we see Roman use his, from a cool orange Lambo, as a shield from gunfire before whacking his snowmobile-riding attacker with it. Super good.
Universal
The good guys find themselves overmatched as they try to take down Dom, so they seek help from an unlikely place: Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), who killed Han. To procure his help, Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) has to go into the prison where Deckard is being held and start a riot. Hahahaha.
Universal
We still don't know the exact deal with Dom turning his back on family, but this kicker at the end of the trailer when he kisses Charlize Theron (the real villain) right in front of Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is a real punch to the gut.
Universal
The "Fast" family will take to the streets of New York for the first time in "Fate of the Furious." While we don't know exactly why they'll be there, we do know that it will involve a lot of vehicular mayhem and a roof-mounted mini-gun.
Universal
We got a new chrome twist on the Universal logo, one fitting the high-octane car franchise. Even for "Fast and Furious," this is pretty out there -- most of the movies in the series thus far just had the regular old logo. Of course, this may just be a trailer thing. It's cool either way.
Universal

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Highlights include a wrecking ball nailing some bad guys and a submarine chasing cars

We finally got our first look at the eighth movie in the "Fast and Furious" franchise, dubbed "The Fate of the Furious." And the trailer was quite a doozie -- it showed us Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) turning on his family, as well as a parade of increasingly insane stunts and set pieces. So insane that street racing in Cuba seems positively mundane. Let's take a look.

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