Thanks in large part to the Chinese market, “The Fate of the Furious” just had the biggest worldwide opening weekend in Hollywood history.
The movie, which was internationally released on Friday, pulled in an estimated $532.5 million globally, Universal Pictures announced. Although the official figures don’t come out until Monday morning, “The Fate of the Furious” appears to be on track to best “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which currently holds the record at $529 million following its 2015 release.
“The Fate of the Furious” raked in $100.2 million inside the U.S. and $432.3 million aboard ― the latter is the most any film has ever made in its international debut weekend. “Jurassic World” held the previous record with $316 million.
That international help was needed, as it appears that the eighth movie in the “Fast and the Furious” franchise was not able to pull in domestically anything close to what “Furious 7” did in the U.S. during its opening weekend two years ago.
“This is truly a global franchise,” Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at ComScore, told Variety. “These movies translate perfectly into any culture. Fast cars, outrageous stunts — that’s the international language for something everybody loves.”
There is one note, however: When “The Force Awakens” opened, China was not part of the initial release. Considering that the “Furious” franchise pulled in $190 million of its weekend haul in China, the Star Wars franchise might still be the king of the movie kingdom.