Paying customers turn their back on family as ‘Fast X’ heads for the franchise’s lowest box office debut in 2 decades

If we’ve learned anything over the last 22 years of Fast & Furious movies, it’s that you never turn your back on family, especially not this one. However, thanks to Fast X heading for a disappointing debut weekend at the domestic box office, it’s beginning to look as though audiences are finally starting to grow tired of the crew’s ridiculous adventures.

Based on the latest projections, director Louis Leterrier’s high-octane blockbuster is on track to finish its first frame with around $65 million or so in the bank, which is very low for a new entry in The Fast Saga. In fact, if you discount spin-off Hobbs & Shaw, then it’s the lowest-grossing opening for any of the mainline installments since the $23 million of 2006’s Tokyo Drift and 2 Fast 2 Furious‘ $50 million back in 2003.

While F9 gets a because of the pandemic – which was largely blamed for its lackluster $70 million opening – every new film in The Fast Saga since the 2009 iteration that reunited the core four and set the series off on the trajectory it currently occupies today has netted between $70 million and $98 million – with the exception of Furious 7, which stands as an outlier with its monstrous $147 million bow.

By comparison, Fast X is opening in the Hobbs & Shaw range, although Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham’s solo adventure did still haul in north of $750 million when all was said and done. The positive is that the 10th and possibly penultimate chapter depending on whether or not that trilogy happens is on course for a worldwide tally of $320 million, which should offset some of the disappointment on home soil.