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The Fate of the Furious overtakes Star Wars: The Force Awakens for biggest worldwide debut

The Fate of the Furious overtakes Star Wars: The Force Awakens for biggest worldwide debut

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The Fate of the Furious film still
Universal Pictures

The Fate of the Furious, the eighth installment of the Fast and the Furious franchise, is off to a record-breaking start. The film debuted this weekend worldwide, where it raked in $100.2 million domestically and $432.3 million internationally. Combined, that puts The Fate of the Furious at $532.5 million at the global box office, surpassing the previous record of $529 million set by Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

It owes that record to its success internationally, where it also beat out Jurassic World’s previous record of $316.7 million in international sales in an opening weekend. Fate of the Furious’ opening weekend in China accounts for the majority of its global revenue. The film topped $190 million there, while its second highest territorial debut (outside of the US) was Mexico with $17.8 million.

Fate of the Furious’ global success is proof of the need for Hollywood to take its blockbusters beyond domestic audiences. The movie just barely pushed past The Force Awakens, which celebrated a huge domestic opening with an estimated $238 million. But The Force Awakens had a delayed debut in China, which was surely reflected in its opening potential.

This is the biggest win for the series since Furious 7’s own record-breaking debut back in 2015, and the franchise isn’t over yet. Vin Diesel confirmed last year that fans can expect two more tales of nice cars and broken speed limits in 2019 and 2021. The Fate of the Furious’ is the second Fast and Furious movie debut to cross the $100 million mark domestically.