Last weekend, Universal Pictures announced that the seventh installment of the Fast & Furious franchise had reached the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office after only 17 days — a feat that puts it among the biggest blockbusters of the modern era and makes the high-octane action series one of the most successful franchises of all time.
While there have been several films to cross the $1 billion mark globally in recent years, no movie has done it faster than Furious 7 (which is appropriate, given the franchise’s car-racing roots). Both The Avengers and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 required 19 days to reach $1 billion at the box office, setting the previous record for ticket sales.
And that wasn’t the only record Furious 7 has left in its dust. The film now holds the record for the most successful opening weekend of all time in 29 regions around the world, and the highest opening of all time for a movie in China (one of the largest global markets for movies) with $63.5 million, breaking the $36 million record previously held by Transformers: Age of Extinction. It also holds the April and Easter weekend records in the U.S., and now ranks as the seventh highest-grossing film of all time worldwide.
From a studio standpoint, Furious 7 had the most successful opening weekend in Universal Pictures’ history, and is the highest-grossing film of all time for the studio.
And the most impressive aspect of all this record-breaking may be the fact that Furious 7 is still in theaters.
The film crossed the $300 million mark here in the U.S. over the weekend while continuing its dominance at the top of the domestic box office for the third straight week. Given how well the film is still performing in theaters around the world, it’s reasonable to believe it may crack the top five all-time highest-grossing films in the world, moving past Iron Man 3 and Frozen.
The performance of Furious 7 has also pushed the Fast & Furious franchise into the upper echelon of movie series, and is now among the few to hold a spot in the top ten that isn’t based on a licensed property, book, or otherwise adapted material.
“What started as a small film about the street racing sub-culture of East Los Angeles has become a global phenomenon with Furious 7 shattering records in so many territories around the globe,” said Duncan Clark, Universal Pictures President of International Distribution, in a statement accompanying the announcement. “We’re thrilled to celebrate this accomplishment with our colleagues and distribution partners throughout the world, who have made these extraordinary results possible.”
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