F9 won't open domestically for nearly a month, but the movie has already bowed in many international territories, including once and future box office powerhouse China, and that means that while F9 is not currently the number one movie in America, it is the number one movie in the world. The cast of F9, from Vin Diesel to Tyrese Gibson to Michelle Rodriguez, and also director Justin Lin are thanking those global movie audiences for the film's early success.
In a video posted to Instagram the Fast and Furious "family" thanked all the people that have helped make F9 a hit already. The film has already grossed over $160 million around the world, and while that's not a massive number on its own, $135 million of that has come from success in China. Which is a solid number for a weekend opening, and without any major competition either there or here, it's enough to make it the biggest movie in the world right now.
While the $135 million opening in China doesn't set records for the Fast and Furious franchise it actually is the number two opening for the franchise in the country, which is pretty impressive considering we're talking about a movie that is being released just as the world is starting to show signs of coming out the other side of a global pandemic. Box office numbers show not only that people want to see the new Fast and Furious movie in theaters, but that they want to see it enough to go out and see it now.
Every member of the core cast thanks viewers around the world for making F9 the success that it is. The movie has already propelled the franchise as a whole past the $6 billion mark. Many of the cast also added additional comments to the post on Vin Diesel's Instagram, including Tyrese Gibson, who is so excited about thanking everybody who made F9 possible that he forgot to proofread his post.
You guys are unreal we love you so much! Congratulations all around #FastFamily ans when I say #FastFamily that means to our whole cast and crew! And YOU the real fans and supporters!!
All this is certainly a good sign for when F9 gets released domestically at the end of next month. There is clearly pent up demand for going to the movies here as well, and F9 will be the biggest franchise movie to date to open post-pandemic when it does. One expects that people will return to theaters to see this one. And by the end of June movie theater capacity in many places could even be at or very close to full, giving the movie a real chance to put up box office numbers we would have seen before everything fell apart.
