The appeal of fast cars, crashing said fast cars in creative, death-defying ways, and, of course, family is apparently universal, as Furious 7 raked in $384 million at the global box office this weekend, the biggest opening weekend since November 2013’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and the fourth-best global opening of all time. And why not? Just look at that header picture. The Rock is shooting down a helicopter with that crazy thing. A helicopter. Not to mention the part where Vin Diesel and his onscreen family went skydiving—in their cars. They actually tossed a bunch of cars out of the back of an airplane for that stunt. That’s awesome. The Paul Walker tribute was nice, too.
Anyway, $143.6 million of Furious 7’s $384 million was from the domestic box office. According to The Hollywood Reporter, 75 percent of that domestic audience was composed of non-whites, with Hispanic viewers making up the majority of ticket sales. That’s good news for what Deadline would refer to as “ethnic” actors, as it shows that a multiracial cast, one of the signatures of the Fast And Furious series, is actually an box-office asset in 2015. It also makes sense, because who doesn’t like seeing people who look like them kicking ass and driving cool cars? Not just white men, turns out.
Besides Furious 7, it wasn’t a terribly exciting weekend at the box office, with Home coming in at No. 2 with $27.4 million in its second week. That other paean to flaming wreckage, Get Hard, came in at No. 3, with Cinderella and The Divergent Series: Insurgent rounding out the top five. It Follows occupied the No. 6 spot this week, falling one place from its No. 5 showing last week, another ambiguous sign that could be interpreted as either positive or negative depending on how you feel about the film. (For the record, we’re for it.) Finally, The Woman In Gold was the only other new release to crack the top 10 this week, earning the No. 7 spot with a $2 million opening. There are still some people out there who prefer Helen Mirren art-world legal dramas to the comedic stylings of Tyrese Gibson, apparently. Oh well, we’ll get them next time.
For more detailed numbers, visit Box Office Mojo.