Fast X, the tenth film of the franchise, raced away with a $67.5M opening, which is right along the lines of where it was always expected to fall. Worldwide, its opening weekend total was around $320M.
As is typical, critics hate it with its Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer at a lousy 54%. Its audience score is much higher at 86%. While that is better than the critics’ score, it’s just okay. The exiting audience reaction was also positive but not glowing. Fast X earned a B+ from CinemaScore, the same as F9, but below the scores of Fate of the Furious (A), Furious 7 (A), and even Hobbs & Shaw (A-) which wound up being the weakest performer of the franchise, although technically that was more of a spinoff. Via PostTrak, Fast X earned an 82% positive.
The franchise’s frontman, Vin Diesel, has stated that he felt that Fast X would likely be the first part of a trilogy that would wrap this series up. I doubt that’s going to happen. While $67.5M is a decent opening, it’s only the seventh-best opening of the franchise. It is even lower than that of F9 and that came out during the pandemic. The franchise’s best opening was in 2015 when Furious 7 debuted with $147.1M. Both the opening numbers and overall grosses have been declining since.
Elsewhere, in other franchise news, even though Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 3 stepped down from the top spot for Fast X, it had a really strong hold, dipping just 48% in its third weekend. It looks like fears that the emotional elements of the film might prevent repeat viewings proved unfounded.
Over three days, Guardians 3 earned an additional $32.7M, bringing its domestic tally to $267.2M.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Book Club: The Next Chapter, and Evil Dead Rise rounded up the Top 5.
You can check out the figures below:
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- Fast X (Universal) – 3-day $67M/ Wk 1
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Disney) – 3-day $32.7M/ Total $267.2M/ Wk 3
- Super Mario Bros (Universal) – 3-day $9.8M/ Total $549.2M/ Wk 7
- Book Club: Next Chapter (Focus) – 3-day $3M/ Total $13.1M/ Wk 2
- Evil Dead Rise (New Line) – 3-day $2.4M/ Total $64.1M/ Wk 5
Falling just outside of the Top Five was John Wick: Chapter 4. It earned an additional $1.33M bringing its domestic total to $185.3M. Worldwide, this is the best performer of the brand, sitting at $425.3. That helped push the worldwide gross for the entire John Wick franchise past the $1 billion mark.
Fast X probably has a slim chance of hanging onto the top spot for a second week, but it’s super slim. Not only are its reviews and audience reactions not good, but it’s facing stiff competition from Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid.
Though there has been some backlash against these live-action remakes in general, and… you know, some *ahem* politically-fueled outrage against this one in particular, audiences are eating them up. Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland, The Lion King, and Aladdin all made over $1B worldwide.
Anticipation is high for The Little Mermaid, but the reviews overall aren’t great, with most praise going to star Halle Bailey and costar Melissa McCarthy. Its Rotten Tomatoes score is 71% at this time, but that is only based on 51 reviews. And something tells me this film is going to be critic-proof anyway.
What do you think of the summer season so far? What are you anticipating?
