‘Hobbs & Shaw’ was the #1 movie at the box office and earned $61.5 million in its opening weekend, but some people are crying failure, as this picture had the lowest opening in the ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise since 2006’s ‘The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift’. But don’t tell that to Dwayne Johnson (Hobbs). He compared this spin-off to Marvel’s ‘Ant-Man’, an offbeat mostly comedic film, which focused on a small family grouping, not the dozens of characters and galaxy-spanning super-heroics in the team-up movies.
Johnson expressed his stance on Twitter:
Thanks so much everyone! Like AntMan’s success from the Avengers – ya never know how these smaller movies splinter off from their big franchises, so this win was a big one for us. https://t.co/400q8vdgQc
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) August 8, 2019
Fans have been reacting positively to Johnson’s Marvel reference, with some even pointing out that he is set to play a DC character, Black Adam in an upcoming film, making his statement a little ironic.
Jason Statham co-starred as Shaw, and ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ had the highest-grossing opening weekend of either Johnson or Statham’s careers, with the exception of their earlier ‘Fast & Furious’ installments. Also, the last few ‘Fast & Furious’ movies have been strategically opened on Easter Weekend, which gives them a massive boost, and I hate to bring it up, but the death of Paul Walker also resulted in a huge surge in popularity for the brand.
Tyrese Gibson who stars in the main film series reignited his very public feud with Johnson by poking fun at this opening.
But commenters called him out, pointing out that worldwide, ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ made $180 million and that’s without the lucrative China market, where foreign movies are currently prevented from opening in order to boost that country’s own film industry. And like the main ‘Fast & Furious’ movies, this picture is expected to make much more overseas than in the U.S.
RELATED:
But once again, ‘Ant-Man’ was never expected to make as much money as an ‘Avengers’ or ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ movie. It wasn’t even expected to do as well as a solo ‘Iron Man’, ‘Thor’, or ‘Captain America’ movie, seeing those brands have had years to grow a devoted following. ‘Ant-Man’ wound up making $519 million at the box office worldwide and earned a sequel.
Universal has stated there will only be a couple more ‘Fast & Furious’ movies, so it makes sense for them to try spinning-off some characters in hopes of establishing newer franchises to carry on once the core franchise wraps up.
Did you see ‘Hobbs & Shaw’? Do you consider it a disappointment compared to the main ‘Fast & Furious’ movies?
