In 2019, nine movies earned over a billion dollars at the box office, with Avengers: Endgame seizing the title of cinema’s biggest-ever hit after bringing in almost $2.8 billion. However, the Coronavirus pandemic has had such a devastating effect on the theatrical industry that Fast & Furious 9 becoming the first title since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker to reach $500 million is definitely something worth celebrating.
Bad Boys for Life held onto the pandemic-era crown for well over a year before it was eventually toppled by Godzilla vs. Kong, thanks largely to the MonsterVerse blockbuster’s strong performance in China, with the business rebounding in the country a lot quicker than it has on domestic shores. The same can be said of F9, which has sailed passed the $200 million barrier in the territory, as well as racing past $125 million in the United States in less than two weeks.
It’s hugely encouraging news, especially when the latest chapter in The Fast Saga is toppling records left, right and center, so things are looking good that the hotly-anticipated return of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Black Widow will experience similar success, despite Scarlett Johansson’s solo debut scoring a hybrid release on Disney Plus Premier Access.
Outside of Fast & Furious 9 and Black Widow, there aren’t too many titles in the pipeline you could see coming close to the fabled billion-dollar mark, with the notable exception of fellow MCU stablemate Spider-Man: Far From Home. We’ll take what we can get, though, and at least the signs are hugely encouraging that things may finally be getting back to some semblance of normality after the eighteen months of doomsaying and uncertainty that brought the movie business to its knees.
