LOS ANGELES—The “Fast & Furious” franchise gave Hollywood its best opening weekend since December 2019 at the box office this weekend, offering further evidence that American entertainment industries are accelerating toward some semblance of normalcy.
“F9: The Fast Saga,” the ninth installment of the car-racing franchise, collected an estimated $70 million from domestic theaters. While that opening is only the sixth-best of the series so far, it comes after several releases that indicate a steadily growing appetite among moviegoers to venture back to the theater.
“This film establishes that we’re coming out of it,” said Jim Orr, president of domestic theatrical distribution at Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures, which distributed the film.
The opening of “F9” is the best of any Hollywood release since “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” in late 2019, and follows the encouraging openings of “Godzilla vs. Kong” in March and “A Quiet Place Part II” in May.
“F9,” however, offers the clearest test yet on the post-pandemic habits of moviegoers. The movie is the most-anticipated title released since the pandemic closed theaters and comes as about 80% of the auditoriums have reopened and major cities allow full-capacity seating inside them.
