The good news just keeps on coming for the Fast & Furious gang, with the ninth installment recently obliterating all standing box office records set during the pandemic era, and the movie is now less than $30 million away from passing Godzilla vs. Kong to become the most successful Hollywood blockbuster released since the beginning of 2020.
A bumper domestic debut has also seen The Fast Saga overtake X-Men to stand tall as the fifth highest-grossing film series in the history of cinema, a phenomenal achievement for a brand that began life 20 years ago as a mid budget street racing thriller that was heavily indebted to Point Break for almost all of its major plot beats.
The extended universe surrounding Dominic Toretto and the rest of his cohorts has now exceed a cumulative total of $6.3 billion in theatrical takings, moving $300 million ahead of Fox’s merry band of mutants despite only boasting ten movies compared to X-Men‘s thirteen. No matter how well F9 continues to perform, though, it won’t be able to move any higher up the rankings for a long time yet.
Of course, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is miles out in front with close to $22.6 billion and Black Widow releasing next week, followed by Star Wars‘ $10.3 billion. After that it’s the Wizarding World that’s conjured $9.2 billion from the eight-film Harry Potter series and two Fantastic Beasts prequels, and James Bond occupies fourth place having spend almost 60 years racking up a shade over $7 billion.
Fast & Furious 9 is very unlikely to haul in an additional $700 million and No Time to Die is finally coming in October, so it might not be until the final two chapters hit the big screen that Dom and company can move up to fourth.