‘Furious 7’ Hits $1 Billion, Will It Be The Highest Grossing Film Ever?
It’s official, folks. Furious 7 has joined the billion-dollar club, joining the ranks of only 19 other films to have ever made $1 billion worldwide. What’s more is that the film hit that milestone in 17 short days, which is the fastest that any film has ever hit $1 billion before, TheWrap reports. This is also a huge deal for Universal, as this marks their first billion-dollar film ever. In a press release, Universal also touted a laundry list of Furious 7‘s accomplishments.
- Second-biggest worldwide opening of all time ($397.2 million) behind only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
- Highest-grossing domestic ($147.2 million) and international ($250 million) openings in Universal history.
- Biggest April and Easter opening.
- Highest opening since November of 2013 domestically.
- All-time highest opening weekend of any film in 29 territories.
- Universal’s highest-grossing film of all-time in 26 territories.
- Record-breaking opening day in China ($63.5 million) beating the previous record held by Transformers 4 ($36 million).
Needless to say, Furious 7 has become something of a juggernaut, and with its release a couple weeks back, it effectively launched the summer blockbuster season. Not bad for a franchise that started from a relatively small-scale street-racing crime flick. Sure, Furious 7 takes the cake for highest grossing in the franchise, but are there much bigger things in store for the landmark film?
Since the Furious 7‘s release, positive word of mouth has helped to catapult it into its current position, and as such, it could be en route to overtake the likes of The Avengers, which hit the $1 billion mark in 19 days. The film went on to earn a grand total of $1.5 billion worldwide. Considering Furious 7 hit the same mark in two days less, it may be safe to say it’ll break that record. Couple that with the fact that there won’t be another big blockbuster for another couple weeks (Avengers: Age Of Ultron), and it seems that Furious 7 could maintain strong sales for the foreseeable future.
Given its record-breaking performance, one has to question if the film is destined for even greater things than the No. 3 highest grossing film of all-time. Is it possible for the film to beat the likes of Titanic and Avatar?
Sadly, that prospect is unlikely. If it had another month or so of being the only blockbuster in theaters, it may have had a shot, but as we mentioned before, it’s only a couple weeks until Avengers: Age Of Ultron hits cinemas, and at that point, much of the audience’s dollar will be headed straight into Marvel’s pocket. Let’s also not forget that 2015 is a year where some of the biggest movies ever are coming out. Following Avengers 2, we have Jurassic World, The Hunger Games:Mockingjay, Part 2, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Given each of these films’s track records, we may have a real struggle for the number 3 spot along with Furious 7 (and potentially even the number 1 or 2 spots).
Do you think Furious 7 will overtake The Avengers in worldwide box office growth? Let us know below!
[Image Credits: Screen Crush, Blast Your Stereo]
