Counting All the Furious 7 Box Office Records
Spoiler Alert: There are a lot
Furious 7 set a number of records at the box office, both domestically and globally, in its opening weekend
Furious 7 is the latest film in the Fast and Furious franchise, opening on Friday, April 3rd. To no one’s surprise, the seventh installment in the films series totally dominated at the box office, but perhaps even more than most of us expected.
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The film, which stars Vin Diesel and the late Paul Walker, grossed $67.3 million domestically on its first day. That day alone finally took the franchise past $1 billion; the previous six films had earned a total of $938 million in theatres. Furious 7 went on to earn another $76.3 million on Saturday and Sunday, for a grand total of $143.6 million here in the United States. That makes it not just number one at the box office over the weekend, but also number nine in terms of films with the highest grossing opening weekends; 2007’s Spider-Man 3 remains at number eight with a $151.1 million opening weekend.
The late Paul Walker (left) and Vin Diesel (right), stars of Furious 7
Furious 7 is the first of the Fast and Furious films to hit the $100 million mark in its opening weekend. It’s also interesting to note that the $143.6 million earned in the film’s first weekend is just slightly less than the $144.5 million that the first Fast and Furious film earned in its 19-week run in 2001.
Here’s another big Furious 7 box office win: it is now the film with the highest grossing opening weekend that debuted in April. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which debuted in April of last year, had previously held that title with a $95 million opening weekend. On top of that, the film marks the biggest-ever Easter opening, beating out 2010’s Clash of the Titans from Warner Bros. Oh, and did I mention that Furious 7 is Universal’s single biggest-ever opening?
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The film also performed well globally. In fact, experts are predicting that Furious 7 will be India’s highest-grossing Hollywood film in movie history by the time the film ends its run in theatres. Total global earnings for opening weekend came in at $384 million, making it the fourth largest global opening weekend; ahead of Furious 7 sit Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two; Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; and The Avengers, in that order.
Even if Vin Diesel is wrong in predicting that Furious 7 will win Best Picture (and he likely is), the film’s monetary success speaks for itself. The franchise’s popularity has not slowed down since its first installment; in fact, it seems to be gaining speed, and the future possibilities are endless, though I’m not quite sure how they could ever top that C-130 plane drop.
News Sources: Box Office Mojo
Timothy Moore takes his leadership inspiration from Michael Scott, his writing inspiration from Mark Twain, and his dancing inspiration from every drunk white guy at a wedding. When Tim is not writing about cars and money, he’s working on his novel or reading someone else’s, geeking out over strategy board games, hiking with his pooch, or channeling his inner Linda Belcher over beers with his friends. See more articles by Timothy.