Weekend Actuals: ‘Fate of the Furious’ Revs Up Largest Global Opening Weekend Ever w/ $531.9M, $98.7M Domestic

Monday Update: The largest global opening weekend ever was the “fate” of one of the unlikeliest blockbuster franchises in history, as Universal’s action adventure The Fate of the Furious knocked off the previously-untouchable Star Wars this weekend.

Fate took in $531.9 million worldwide, squeaking past the $529.0 million global start of Star Wars: The Force Awakens from December 2015. (Asterisk: Force also notched the global weekend record despite not opening in China until a month later, while Fate opened in China from the start.) It also bests the $397.7 million start of previous series installment Furious 7 in April 2015, which was previously the fifth-best global weekend all time, now sixth-best.

Counting overseas grosses alone, Fate began with $433.2 million, absolutely shattering previous record holder Jurassic World with $316.7 million in June 2015. It also towers over the $250.5 million overseas-only start of Furious 7, previously the high mark for the franchise and sixth-best overseas start all time, now seventh-best. And its $192.1 million opening weekend in China is also a new record, beating previous record $182.4 million from Furious 7.

Domestically, Fate began with an estimated $98.7 million. While that’s great, it’s below some analysts’ pre-release estimates, some of which had it potentially opening to $120+ million. This installment earned “only” the 66th-best domestic opening weekend of all time, adjusted for inflation. In fact, adjusted for inflation, it starts third-highest of the eight Furious series installments — well below the $147.1 million debut of Furious 7 and just below the $100.5 million inflation-adjusted opening of Fast & Furious 6.

Still, Universal has nothing to complain about here. Any slight underwhelming domestic gross is more than cancelled out by the mammoth overseas total. In fact, of the 100 best global opening weekends of all time, Fate posted by far the highest percentage from overseas with an estimated 81.4 percent. That’s far larger than the previous record holder, 2011’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides with 74.3 percent. Fate represents Exhibit A of this decade’s unprecedented importance of non-U.S. markets to global box office receipts.

Our Sunday studio weekend estimates article, which contains more analysis, is below the weekend actuals table.

Weekend Actuals for Friday, April 14 – Sunday, April 16, 2017:

Sunday Update: The largest global opening weekend ever was the “fate” of one of the unlikeliest blockbuster franchises in history, as Universal’s action adventure The Fate of the Furious appeared to knock off the previously-untouchable Star Wars this weekend.

Fate took in an estimated $532.5 million worldwide, likely squeaking past the $529.0 million global start of Star Wars: The Force Awakens from December 2015. It also bests the $397.7 million start of previous series installment Furious 7 in April 2015, which was previously the fifth-best global weekend all time, now sixth-best.

Counting overseas grosses alone, Fate began with an estimated $432.3 million, absolutely shattering previous record holder Jurassic World with $316.7 million in June 2015 — an enormous $115.6 million gap. It also towers over the $250.5 million overseas-only start of Furious 7, previously the high mark for the franchise and sixth-best overseas start all time, now seventh-best. And its $190.0 million opening weekend in China is also a new record, beating previous record $182.4 million from Furious 7.

(Final numbers for Fate will be released on Monday, where it’s possible the film’s actuals could come in slightly below their Sunday estimates and maybe even below Force. Force also notched the global weekend record despite not opening in China until a month later, while Fate opened in China from the start.)

Domestically, Fate began with an estimated $100.2 million. While that’s great — any $100+ million opening weekend is — it’s below some analysts’ pre-release estimates, some of which had it potentially opening to $120+ million. This installment is currently estimated at “only” the 66th-best domestic opening weekend of all time, adjusted for inflation. In fact, adjusted for inflation, it starts third-highest of the eight Furious series installments — well below the $147.1 million debut of Furious 7 and just below the $100.5 million inflation-adjusted opening of Fast & Furious 6.

Still, Universal has nothing to complain about here. Any slight underwhelming domestic gross is more than cancelled out by the mammoth overseas total. In fact, of the 100 best global opening weekends of all time, Fate posted by far the highest percentage from overseas with an estimated 81.2 percent. That’s far larger than the previous record holder, 2011’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides with 74.3 percent. Fate represents Exhibit A of this decade’s unprecedented importance of non-U.S. markets to global box office receipts.

How did Fate pull off such a coup against Star Wars, the most financially successful series in movie history? Universal’s President of Domestic Distribution Nick Carpou tells Boxoffice Pro that factors include social media marketing, the timing on Easter weekend, and a combination of ‘new’ and ‘old’ (similar to The Force Awakens) that could appeal to all ages.

“The major actors in this series of films are ‘worldwide actors’ at the top of their game, who happened to have well-developed social media platforms,” Carpou tells Boxoffice Pro. “They’re constantly inviting their fans into the process to see what’s going on. That’s extraordinary, and keeps people interested and invested.”

This installment returned Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, and Jason Statham, as well as new additions Charlize Theron and Helen Mirren. Diesel has the sixth-most liked page worldwide on Facebook with 101.4 million likes, while the Fast and the Furious series in general ranks #35 with 61.0 million, Johnson ranks #39 with 57.9 million, Statham ranks #42 with 55.0 million, and the franchise’s deceased former star Paul Walker (whose page now promotes the new films) ranks #62 with 45.7 million.

“I believe we have the best marketing group in the business, bar none. They’re able to activate and energize this audience base,” Carpou says of the team that among other things helped put together the film’s Super Bowl commercial which netted the largest increase in Facebook likes among the six films that advertised during the game. “[Director] F. Gary Gray also directed Straight Outta Compton for us,” Carpou adds of the 2015 film that exceeded all box office expectations with $161.1 million domestically. “He’s an absolutely masterful filmmaker.”

Finally, the Easter weekend timing worked out well. “This is a great weekend for activating families, and the main storylines in this film are about family and diversity,” Carpou says of the film whose primary tagline on posters and advertisements was “Family no more.” The title starts with the inflation-adjusted third best Easter opening weekend ever, behind Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Furious 7.

Fate earned an “A” average CinemaScore from an audience that was 58 percent male, 50 percent under age 25, and 59 percent non-white in a reflection of the film’s racially diverse cast. It started with an estimated $45.8 million on Friday, including $10.4 million from Thursday evening shows, declined an estimated 30.5 percent on Saturday to $31.8 million, and is projected to fall a subsequent 28.9 percent on Sunday to $22.6 million. This places the opening weekend to Friday ratio at a very frontloaded 2.18 to 1, equal to the 2.18 of Furious 7.

“This is the eighth in a series of films that resonate strongly with our audience base, coming over 17 years since first movie,” Carpou says, referring to the original The Fast and the Furious from 2001. “The audiences continue to renew, including both people with it since the beginning and new people discovering the older titles. This saga is not based on a series of bestselling books. This is original material, expertly written, produced, directed, acted, and marketed.”

Although there were no other new wide releases this weekend, the previous two frames’ leader The Boss Baby from Fox declined an estimated 41.1 percent to $15.5 million and second place. It’s now earned $116.3 million to date.

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast dropped an estimated 42.4 percent to $13.6 million and third place. The film, which crossed the global billion-dollar mark earlier this week and currently stands at $1.04 billion globally, has now earned $454.6 million domestically. On Saturday, it cracked the top 100 films of all time domestically when adjusted for inflation, now standing at #95 by that measure. (It ranks #12 unadjusted for inflation, though that list skews significantly more modern due to increased ticket prices.)

The top 10 films this weekend earned an estimated $312.7 million . That’s nearly triple the $106.2 million earned by the top 10 last weekend, and is more than triple the $91.1 million earned by the top 10 on this weekend last year, when The Boss led with $23.5 million. Fate made up an estimated 64.0 percent of this weekend’s top 10, lower than the 67.9 percent for Furious 7 despite there also being no other new wide releases that weekend.

Studio Weekend Estimates for Friday, April 14 – Sunday, April 16, 2017: