Box office F9 grossed $173 million in the United States and Canada, and $553.2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $726.2 million. It was the
fifth-highest-grossing film of 2021. In the United States and Canada,
F9 was projected to gross $55–65 million from 4,179 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $30 million on its first day (including $7.1 million from Thursday night previews), both the best such totals of the pandemic period. It went on to debut to $70 million, the highest-grossing weekend since
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ($72.4 million) in December 2019. Like previous
Fast & Furious films, the audience was diverse (with 37% Hispanic, 35% Caucasian, 16% Black and 8% Asian) and skewed to both younger (51% under the age of 25) and male (57%) crowds. In its second weekend, the film fell 65% to $23 million, remaining atop the box office. With Universal's
F9,
The Boss Baby: Family Business, and
The Forever Purge finishing in the top three spots, it marked the first time a single studio accomplished the feat since February 2005. It also crossed $100 million domestically and $500 million internationally in record time for the COVID-19 pandemic era. The film made $11.4 million but was dethroned by newcomer
Black Widow the following weekend, then made $7.6 million in its fourth frame, finishing in fourth. Over its five-day international opening weekend, beginning May 19,
F9 was projected to gross $160–180 million from eight countries, including China, Russia, and South Korea. It went on to debut to $163 million, the biggest international opening for a Hollywood film since the pandemic began in March 2020. It also set the pandemic-record for IMAX gross ($14 million), and was the second-biggest May international opening ever, despite playing in 26 fewer countries than the current record holder,
Captain America: Civil War. The top markets from the weekend were China ($136 million; the second biggest-ever opening of the franchise in the country), South Korea ($9.9 million), Russia ($8.3 million), Saudi Arabia ($2.67 million), and the UAE ($2.64 million). In its second weekend of international release the film made $30.8 million, including $20.3 million (-85%) in China and $3.7 million (-42%) in South Korea.
Critical response On the
review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes, 60% of 315 critics gave
F9 a positive review, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "
F9 sends the franchise hurtling further over the top than ever, but director Justin Lin's knack for preposterous set pieces keeps the action humming." According to
Metacritic, which assigned a weighted average of 58 out of 100 based on 54 critics, the film received "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale (becoming the first
Fast & Furious film to receive such a rating since
the original 2001 film), while
PostTrak reported 80% of audience members gave it a positive score, with 62% saying they would definitely recommend it. Matt Patches of
Polygon criticized the film for its lack of characterization, saying, "After 20 years of
Fast films, Dom is a totally functional blockbuster superhero," and that "
F9 counteracts any character development by devoting a grating amount of time to meta-commentary on its own ridiculousness." However, he also praised Lin's direction and the set pieces by writing, "Each location fills Lin's pockets with the currency of imagination, which he cashes in with absolute delight. Where previous installments built off the glory of
The Italian Job,
The French Connection, and
Mad Max: Fury Road,
F9 finds inspiration in the Harlem Globetrotters. The cars catch falling bystanders, flip over enemy off-roaders, and stage intricately choreographed attacks using amped-up magnets."
Varietys
Owen Gleiberman found one of the opening scenes to be "the suspenseful high point of the movie," and wrote, "The scene is so over-the-top ludicrous that it's [as] if the filmmakers were saying, 'Let's put what would have been the grand climax of
Fast and Furious 4 in the opening half hour.' Good enough. But what do you do for an encore?" Writing for
The Hollywood Reporter, John DeFore said that the feature "probably sounds like more fun than it is," and concluded his generally negative review by saying that "
Furious 7 was a lot more fun. And, not that anyone cares, but it was more believable as well." Meanwhile,
IndieWires David Ehrlich gave a more negative response with a C+ rating, and praised Lin's direction, writing, "This is a movie that sling-shots so far past self-parody that it loops all the way back to something real." Jesse Hassenger of
The A. V. Club also gave the film a C+ rating, remarking that "Lin's writing just isn't as fleet as his directing—and his directing in
F9 isn't as fleet as his work on
Fast Five or
Fast & Furious 6." He added, "The problem is all the runway in between the highlights, even longer than the endless literal concrete of the
Fast & Furious 6 climax. After a reinvention as a warmer, more diverse
Mission: Impossible (practically name-checked here), the series has wound up more like a mid-period James Bond movie in its channel-surfing bloat."
Accolades ==Sequel==