‘Furious 7’ Breaks Box-Office Records With $384 Million This Past Weekend
Most Fast & Furious fans know that Furious 7 is the sequel to the 2013 film Fast & Furious 6, and the seventh installment in the Fast &Furious film series. Fans had anticipated Furious 7 would do well at the box office this weekend. They were not disappointed because the action movie broke records with its huge opening in 4,004 locations. According to Us Magazine, Furious 7 brought in $67 million on its opening day. For the entire weekend, it made a total of $143.62 million. An additional $240.4 million was made abroad. This brings the worldwide total to $384.02 million for the movie’s first weekend.
The statistics surrounding Furious 7 are quite impressive. Last weekend’s total makes Furious 7 the ninth-biggest U.S. opening and the fourth-biggest worldwide opening weekend. The sales for Furious 7 are expected to increase in the coming weeks because it has not been released in some of the bigger markets in Russia, Poland, Japan, and China. Furious 7 was released first in Australia on April 2, and then in the United States on April 3. Furious 7 was released in 3D internationally. This was a first for the series.
Furious 7 is the highest-grossing debut for Universal Pictures. So far, it has been the most successful movie in the entire Fast & Furious franchise.
The Huffington Post reminded fans that Paul Walker, who died on November 30, 2013, made his last appearance in Furious 7. Filming was only half completed when the actor was killed in a car crash. Furious 7 was scheduled to be released in July 2014, but filming was delayed after Walker’s death. It is interesting that Walker’s brothers, Caleb and Cody, were used as stand-ins to complete his remaining scenes. To honor Walker, his fans went to see the movie.
CNN reported that fans choked up when they saw a tribute to Paul Walker at the end of the movie.
Not gonna lie, I shed a few tears at the end of Furious 7. The tribute to Paul Walker was very well done.
— Cindy (@cinderrific) April 6, 2015
Another reason for the success of Furious 7 is because the movie was highly promoted. On March 27, an expansion for the video game Forza Horizon 2, titled Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious, was released to help promote the movie.
With last weekend’s success of Furious 7, Paul Dergarabedian, Senior Media Analyst for the box office firm Rentrak, believes the action-packed movie will continue to draw crowds. Dergarabedian went so far as to say, “This could be the first in the franchise to flirt with the billion dollar mark.”
Were you one of the many people who saw Furious 7? If not, do you plan to see it any time soon?
[Image via Universal Pictures]
