At the end of May, I said that F9: The Fast Saga's U.S. debut would be a significant test for the "post-pandemic" box office. It was just that. Theater owners and Universal Pictures looked like big winners.F9 earned an estimated $70million at the U.S. Box Office during its opening weekend. Its debut week began Friday, June 25, and ended on Friday, June 25. To set the scene, F9's opening weekend earnings in the U.S. are the highest since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opened Dec. 2019.The time between then and now is clearly what caused the pandemic. The theater industry was virtually shut down for most of 2020 as it became obvious that social distancing was necessary in order to avoid crowded indoor spaces.Bad Boys for Life, which earned just over $200 million at the box office, was 2020's highest earner in America. It was released in mid-January, giving it an advantage over Sonic the Hedgehog and Birds of Prey.This is a context: The five top-grossing movies in 2019 made over $400 million. Avengers: Endgame was the year's top-grossing movie, earning close to $1 billion. 2001 was the last year that Hollywood's highest-grossing film earned less than $300m.F9 opened lower than one would expect for a Mainline Fast/Furious movie. In 2017, The Fate of the Furious was released and made almost $100 million in its first weekend. Furious 7, which was released in 2015, only managed to make it close to $150 million. (Hobbs & Shaw opened in 2019 with $60 million. However, it is also a spinoff.However, you cannot ignore the pandemic. $70 million is not to be dismissed. F9 is crushing it. The boost was also needed by theaters. People are still trying to figure out when and how they will re-embrace public life. A large turnout like this will encourage more people to go to movies (or any other activity).Universal is also affected by this, but it's not a small amount. F9 was also a victim to COVID. Original plans were for the movie to be released in theaters May 22, 2020. This didn't happen. However, other studios and Hollywood interest explored streaming or other options to get their 2020 movies out. Universal instead locked F9 in its vault for a post-pandemic release.While some of the most anticipated summer releases will not be available for streaming, I am looking at the following: In the Heights, Black Widow and Jungle Cruise. You can't stream it; you have to go to the movies if you want.Universal is not losing as much, if any, because of the other movies and studios that produced them. It's easy for HBO and Disney to make their blockbuster movies a selling point on their new streaming platforms. Universal is still savvy in this area; F9 may be showing that it can keep big releases off its streaming platforms.
