‘The Fate of the Furious’ is officially a BILLION dollar film.
This achievement makes director F. Gary Gray the FIRST Black director to have a billion dollar grossing film.
After taking into account Saturday night’s grosses, Universal’s “Fate of the Furious” has achieved the $1 billion milestone. $867.6 million of the film’s earnings have come from the international box office, while domestically the high-octane actioner has made $192.7 million.
“Fate” shot out the gate to the largest global opening of all time with $542 million ($443.2 million international, and $98.8 million domestic). Directed by F. Gary Gray and written by Chris Morgan, the film’s insane stunts and diverse ensemble cast — including Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, Scott Eastwood and Charlize Theron — has proven big box office success for the studio. In fact, of the four other movies from Universal to become billionaires, “Furious 7” sits in second place with $1.52 billion.
“Fate of the Furious” is the first in the franchise since the tragic death of Paul Walker, who was involved in a single-vehicle crash in 2013. The seventh movie functioned as a sort of tribute to the late actor. The eighth centers around Dominic Toretto (Diesel) who is coerced by a cyberterrorist (Theron) to turn against his team. In his review for Variety, critic Owen Gleiberman called the latest episode a “dazzling action spectacle that proves this franchise is far from out of gas.”
Story checks out: recent reports say Universal is mulling a spinoff of the franchise starring Johnson, Statham and Theron. And whether or not that happens, chances are good there will be many more installments to come.
