‘F9’ drives to mighty $162m debut overseas

LOS ANGELES: “F9” has the international box office sizzling. The latest installment in Universal’s testosterone-fueled franchise kicked off with a massive $162.4 million in eight markets, including China, South Korea and Hong Kong. Those ticket sales easily mark the best start for a Hollywood blockbuster since Covid-19 hit.

It’s an encouraging start to summer movie season, particularly because revenues weren’t far off from what a “Fast” movie would have generated at the box office in non-pandemic times.

“Moviegoers are eager to come back to theaters when the right movie is out there,” Universal’s president of international distribution Veronika Kwan Vandenberg said. “It’s a great movie for the China market,” she adds. “It has a strong fanbase.” Of this weekend’s $162 million bounty, $135 million came from China alone. That ranks as the second-biggest launch for the series in the country following the eighth entry, 2017’s “The Fate of the Furious” ($184 million).

In another notable milestone, it’s the first Hollywood title in two years — since Disney’s 2019 superhero epic “Avengers: Endgame” — to debut to more than $100 million in China.