The latest chapter in the Fast and Furious franchise, titled F9, finally debuted this weekend after a lengthy delay. Despite the challenges of releasing a movie right now, which have admittedly lessened as the vaccine came, the box office is still not at full strength. Still, F9 took in $70 million from 4,179 domestic theaters. Oddly enough, the pandemic is really put into perspective when one considers that this number is the most any film has made since late 2019, yet still doesn’t come close to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the highest grossing film of the last 18 months or so.
F9 has received mix reviews from critics, while still earning somewhat positive reactions from audiences (a trend in the franchise). As we wrote in our review of the film,
“F9 misses the mark somewhat in an installment that takes the franchise to new heights of absurdity. The film is admittedly entertaining, in large part due to the unintentional humor that comes from the wooden performances and the incredible action directed by Justin Lin, but, ultimately, falls flat as F9’s attempts at grandiosity ultimately feel like parody.”
Elsewhere, A Quiet Place Part II took second spot once again, earning $6.3 million. This continues its strong hold and low drop offs weekend after weekend, and is poised to be one of the big successes of the year. It has already earned $136 million worldwide.
Meanwhile, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard earned $4.8 million, a relatively strong drop off from last weekend’s already lukewarm performance. The film has earned $25.8 million so far. Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway and Cruella rounded out the top 5 with $4.8 million and $3.7 million respectively.
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