The Vin Diesel–Dwayne Johnson starrer The Fate of the Furious, now named as Fast and Furious 8, is off to a fierce start at the Chinese box office. The film is setting fire at the box office as it has touched $30 million by Friday afternoon, shared Variety.
Also Read: Fast and Furious 8 review
The entertainment website quotes local data service Ent Group to say that Fast 8 has earned $8.2 million from 16,000 midnight screenings. By Friday afternoon, its first day of release, F8 sold over $29.7 million (RMB205 million) worth of tickets, Variety reports.
It also refers to the numbers provided by online ticketing service Weying and writes that Furius 8 passed the RMB 300 million ($43.5 million) landmark by 12.30 pm (China time) on Friday. Fast 8 currently holds over 90 percent of the market share.
The seventh Fast and Furious movie was the all-time box office champion in China with a gross of $380 million.
It has been predicted that Furious 8 will not earn as much as the opening of Fast and Furious 7, which opened at $150 million at box office during its opening weekend. But Box Office Mojo reports that FF8 stands a strong chance to become the second $100+ million opener of 2017 as it is the only big release this weekend.
Considering the factors that decide box office collections, Box Office Mojo predicts that the film could open to $123 million over the first weekend.
Before Fast 7, the biggest opening for a Fast and Furious film was the $97.3 million opening for Fast and Furious 6, which released in May 2013, Box Office Mojo writes.
The new Fast and Furious movie is debuting in 63 markets with China and Russia being the biggest markets for the film. Analysts have predicted that the film will top this weekend's box office collection with $380 million and possibly blow past the $400 million mark globally.
While Universal hasn't revealed the cost of Fast 8, film analysts believe that the movie may have been made with a budget of $250 million.
