After an opening day where it bested its predecessor F9, Fast X falls behind at the domestic box office by the end of its opening weekend.
Fast X has slumped slightly at the box office toward the end of its opening weekend. The film is the tenth entry in the long-running franchise which began with the 2001 action-crime movie The Fast and the Furious. It follows the continued adventures of the found family at the center of the series including Dom (Vin Diesel), Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), and Tej (Ludacris) as they square off against a new villain Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa) who is on a quest for vengeance after his drug kingpin father was killed during the events of 2011’s Fast Five.
Per Deadline, the Fast X box office hit the brakes toward the end of its opening weekend. Despite an opening day that grossed higher than the previous film F9: The Fast Saga it couldn’t sustain that lead and fell slightly behind, eventually closing the weekend with a domestic gross of $67 million. This is $3 million behind F9‘s domestic opening of $70 million back in 2021.
How Fast X’s Box Office Compares to the Rest of the Franchise
This opening weekend places Fast X squarely in the middle of the franchise. At the very least, it maintains the new era of the series’ record of continuing to gross higher than the first three films (the original, 2 Fast 2 Furious, and The Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift). It also grossed a higher opening weekend than the Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham spinoff Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.
This means that its total domestic run will probably end up squarely in the middle as well. There is precedent for films that opened lower in the franchise to earn a slight boost as time goes by, like Hobbs & Shaw which ended up being the fifth highest-grossing film in the franchise despite a seventh-place opening weekend. However, even if Fast X eventually rises over F9 in the long run, it doesn’t seem likely that it will end up much higher than that film’s No. 6 ranking on the domestic chart.
While Fast X isn’t turning out a great performance in the U.S., it is still poised to close the weekend with $320 million at the global box office. This number is what will inject fuel in the franchise’s tank and allow it to keep running into the planned Fast 11 sequel and a potential twelfth and final entry. However, if those films show a similar slow decline at the box office, this may prevent the franchise from continuing beyond that point until the time comes for a reboot where it can start fresh.
Source: Deadline
