Back in March, when theaters around the world started closing their doors due to the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, few could have predicted that the industry would still be in such a dire state ten months later. The box office was down a massive $30 billion compared to 2019, with virtually every major release being pulled from the calendar and given a new date.
To put things into perspective, Chinese blockbuster The Eight Hundred was the highest-grossing movie of last year after raking in $461 million globally. The year before, It: Chapter Two brought in a similar sum of $473 million, but could only take sixteenth position on the annual earnings chart. Even more galling is that the tenth most lucrative title of 2020 was The Sacrifice with $161 million in the bank, while that slot was occupied in 2019 by Jumanji: The Next Level, which pulled in $800 million.
The box office will be hoping to rebound in spectacular fashion throughout 2021, and Fast & Furious 9 will be one of the mega budget blockbusters looking to lead the charge. The latest installment in the long-running series was pushed back by over a year, but is still on course to hit the big screen in the last weekend of May.
John Cena recently took to social media to promote his Fast & Furious debut, and the franchise newcomer believes that the latest outing for Dominic Toretto and his crew will be well worth a trip to the cinema when it finally arrives, as you can see below.
Been ready see this project come to audiences since I first stepped on set. Hope you’re as excited as we are! A new interview for @totalfilm hits UK newsstands THIS Friday, January 8th. #Fast9 #F9 pic.twitter.com/N8YiSw7MYU
— John Cena (@JohnCena) January 4, 2021
Under normal circumstances, Fast & Furious 9 would be guaranteed to sail past a billion dollars, but the recovery of the theatrical industry has been painfully slow. That being said, there are still well over four months to go, so hopefully the revival will be in something close to full swing by then.
