If it felt like everyone you know was back at the movie theater this weekend seeing one movie and one movie only, it’s probably because they were. This weekend,, Universal Studios scored a major box office win with the Vin Diesel-fronted sequel F9, landing an estimated $70 million in its opening weekend. Notably, Fast 9 nabbed the biggest opening weekend since the pandemic began last year and the best first weekend at the box office since 2019, something Dom Toretto would be incredibly proud of his (growing) extended family achieving.
There’s a lot to attribute to the success of F9, likely including its unintentionally long press tour (the film had been set to drop last June), a literal trip to space (“Going to space was not something I took for granted,†director Justin Lin told us just last week), and a Cardi B cameo that Diesel says he hopes becomes an expanded role in future films. Above all else, there’s something to be praised about how much of a massive event the ninth movie in a franchise felt like after what was, for many viewers, more than a year away from movie theaters.
With 2017’s eighth installment, The Fate of the Furious, bringing in $98 million in its opening weekend – and the 2019 spinoff Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw opening with $60 million – F9 certainly shows that the series has no signs of slowing down anytime soon, even if Diesel himself has suggested plans for only two more Fast films (and a musical, too). Money aside: can we talk about all those magnets, now?