'Fast X' Surpasses 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' in Lackluster Domestic Box Office Debut
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Loading... - Dylan Scott
- 22 May 2023
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Internationally, the action-packed film led by Vin Diesel and Jason Momoa has exceeded $300 million in earnings.
The box office results for Fast X, the tenth installment of the long-standing action franchise, present a mixed picture for its performance over the weekend. Although the movie garnered a considerable sum of money globally, the latest figures indicate that the downward trend of the franchise in the domestic market shows no signs of abating. Following a $28 million opening on Friday (including $7.5 million from Thursday previews), Fast X is projected to reach a modest $67.5 million during its opening weekend. This represents the lowest debut for a main entry in the franchise since The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift in 2006, surpassing only the spinoff title Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw's $60 million opening earnings.
The $67.5 million debut places Fast X slightly behind F9: The Fast Saga, which brought in $70 million a couple of years ago, albeit during the peak of the pandemic. It is safe to say that the franchise reached its zenith with Furious 7 in 2015, amassing an impressive $147 million during its opening weekend. Furious 7 went on to gross $1.5 billion globally, despite being produced with a reported budget of $190 million, which significantly increased due to the tragic passing of star Paul Walker midway through production. Fast X had its own share of behind-the-scenes drama, with original director Justin Lin departing a week into filming, resulting in the reported budget skyrocketing to a franchise-high of $340 million.
Louis Leterrier stepped in as Lin's replacement, and he appears to have delivered a film that meets, if not exceeds, expectations. The series is renowned for its increasingly extravagant plot twists and action sequences. Fast X currently holds a "rotten" rating of 54% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and received a lukewarm B+ CinemaScore from audiences on its opening day. Ross Bonaime from Collider commended the film's overall absurdity and highlighted Jason Momoa's portrayal of the villain Dante in his review.
After spending two weekends at the top of the charts, Disney's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 slipped to second place, expecting to earn $32 million in its third weekend, experiencing a mere 47% decline from the previous weekend. While the film's domestic debut was underwhelming, it achieved one of the strongest second-weekend holds in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Currently, the film has amassed a domestic total of $266 million. Globally, the superhero threequel has accumulated $660 million, placing it approximately $100 million behind the final worldwide earnings of the first Guardians of the Galaxy and around $200 million behind the total global revenue of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
Box Office Milestones
In third place, Universal's The Super Mario Bros. Movie collected just under $10 million, bringing its domestic earnings to approximately $550 million. Globally, this mega-hit has grossed $1.248 billion, surpassing Incredibles 2 to become the third highest-grossing animated movie of all time. It remains the year's biggest success both domestically and internationally. The fourth spot belongs to Book Club: The Next Chapter, which generated $3 million this weekend, following its $6.7 million debut last weekend. This comedy-drama targeting an older audience has earned $13 million worldwide thus far, a significant drop compared to the $100 million-plus global revenue of the original Book Club in 2018. Closing out the top five this weekend is the horror sensation Evil Dead Rise, which added $2.4 million, bringing its domestic total to just under $65 million.
