“Furious 7″ left all its competitors in the dust with a scorching global debut of $384 million.
The latest installment in the “Fast and Furious” franchise kicked off in 63 international markets, as well as the U.S. and Canada. It marked Universal Pictures’ biggest wide release ever, unspooling in 14,009 theaters around the world, including Imax and large format locations.
It ranks as the fourth highest-grossing global opening in history behind “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” ($483.2 million), “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” ($394.4 million) and “The Avengers” ($392.5 million).
“They’ve continually amped up the excitement level and improved the brand,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak. “They’ve created something that’s stood the test of time and seeped into the culture.”
The opening breakdown was a $143.6 million Stateside bow and a $240.4 million international kickoff. It’s a particularly impressive international figure, because “Furious 7″ has yet to open in such major markets as Russia, Japan and China.
“Furious 7″ shattered records, becoming the biggest Easter opening in history, the highest-ever April debut, Universal’s largest opening, the best result for all of the film’s castmembers (a group that includes Vin Diesel and Paul Walker), an April record for Imax and a record for premium large-format screens.
Mexico was the top-grossing territory for the film with $20.8 million, followed by the United Kingdom and Ireland at $19 million and Germany with a $15.2 million start.
Analysts told Variety on Sunday that they expect “Furious 7″ to become the first chapter in the series to hit $1 billion.
“Why stop at a billion?” quipped Nick Carpou, Universal’s president of domestic distribution.
Why indeed?
Source: Variety
