F9 drives to mighty $216m debut overseas

LOS ANGELES • Fast And Furious 9 (F9) has the international box office sizzling.

The latest instalment in Universal's testosterone-fuelled franchise kicked off with a massive US$162.4 million (S$216 million) in eight markets, including China, South Korea and Hong Kong.

Those ticket sales easily marked the best start for a Hollywood blockbuster since Covid-19 hit.

It was an encouraging start to summer movie season, particularly because revenues were not far off from what a Fast movie would have generated at the box office in non-pandemic times.

"Moviegoers are eager to come back to theatres when the right movie is out there," Universal's president of international distribution Veronika Kwan Vandenberg said.

"It's a great movie for the China market," she added. "It has a strong fanbase."

Of last weekend's bounty, US$135 million came from China alone. That ranked as the second-biggest launch for the series in the country following the eighth entry, 2017's The Fate Of The Furious (US$184 million).

In another notable milestone, it was the first Hollywood title in two years - since Disney's superhero epic Avengers: Endgame (2019) - to debut to more than US$100 million in China.

Elsewhere, F9 opened to US$9.9 million in South Korea, US$6.2 million in the Middle East and US$2.4 million in Hong Kong.

With last weekend's ticket sales, the Fast franchise has pushed past US$6 billion globally.

F9 - directed by Justin Lin and starring Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and John Cena - is deploying a staggered roll-out across the world as the globe recovers from the pandemic.

The movie touches down in the United States on June 25 and will show in 60 additional markets over the summer.

It was initially scheduled to open in Singapore tomorrow, but the opening has been postponed to June 24 in the wake of the new phase two (heightened alert) measures.

Unlike upcoming blockbuster hopefuls, such as Disney's Black Widow and the Warner Bros musical In The Heights, F9 will be offered only in cinemas - at least for its first few weekends of release.

It was much quieter at the box office in North America, where the gruesome horror film Spiral, action adventure Wrath Of Man and wilderness thriller Those Who Wished Me Dead presided over the competition.

Disney's Raya And The Last Dragon and the Warner Bros tentpole Godzilla Vs Kong rounded out the top five on North American box-office charts.

REUTERS