Fast And Furious 7 Breaks Box Office Record

The film, which grossed an estimated USD 143.6 million over the holiday weekend, beat all analyst expectations, which originally estimated the film would make between USD 115 million and USD 120 million. 

Now, the film is the highest-grossing debut for an April movie and Easter weekend. 

“Furious 7” also debuted at number one in 63 markets, grossing another USD 240.4 million overseas to bring its worldwide total to USD 384 million. 

The film, which goes by the title "Fast & Furious 7" outside the US, represents Hollywood's third highest grossing international opening weekend ever. The only two bigger franchises are "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides."

"Furious 7" was also the highest-grossing global opening of 2015 to date.

"Furious 7" is far from finished. The Russian opening is on April 9th and the Chinese opening is on April 12th.

First fan screening after Walker's death

Those markets could push the film toward USD 1 billion in worldwide ticket sales.

The most obvious reason fans and non-fans may want to head out to see the film is to see how Universal and the cast handled finishing the seventh installment in the franchise after Paul Walker’s death in November 2013. 

Ludacris said recently at one of the first fan screenings that Walker completed about 80% of filming. Walker’s brothers Caleb and Cody came in to help complete the rest.  

“Its success at the box office, many people are going to see that as a tribute to Paul Walker, and what he brought to the franchise and they are going to show up for that reason,” Phil Contrino, the vice president and chief analyst of BoxOffice.com, told Business Insider.

“Even if they maybe skipped some of the other movies, they’ll show up for this one.” 

“The big thing is, what happens to Paul Walker and how they handle that,” adds Contrino. 

Cast members like Vin Diesel and Tyrese have been telling their social media networks that they hope to make Paul (or Pablo, as some affectionately refer to him) proud with this movie. The hashtag “#ForPaul” appears on screen at the film’s end, offering fans the chance to start a conversation. 

By Maureen Murimi