The latest movie in the “Fast & Furious” series, “F9,” fell 85% in the Chinese box office during its second weekend from its opening of $136 million the weekend earlier.
According to The Hollywood Reporter (THR), “[A]fter two laps, the Vin Diesel/John Cena action flick has totaled $185.3 million. That’s slightly ahead of where franchise spinoff Hobbs & Shaw was sitting at a similar point in its China run, but far weaker than the preceding franchise mainstays Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious, which topped out at $390.9 million in 2015 and $392.8 million in 2017, respectively."
THR also noted that “Chinese ticketing app Maoyan currently projects F9 to finish at $211.9 million — certainly not a number to slouch at but far inferior to the franchise’s recent heights, especially since China’s theatrical market is back to full earning capacity.”
Last week, one of the film’s major stars, John Cena, issued a video apology to China in Mandarin after referring to Taiwan as an independent country in an earlier interview. China views Taiwan as part of mainland China.
Cena’s stated in his apology:
“Hi China, I’m John Cena. I’m in the middle of Fast and Furious 9 promotions. I’m doing a lot of interviews. I made a mistake in one of my interviews. Everyone was asking me if I could use Chinese – [movie] staff gave me a lot of information, so there was a lot of interviews and information,” he said in a video posted to the Chinese social network Weibo. “I made one mistake. I have to say something very, very, very important now. I love and respect China and Chinese people. I’m very, very sorry about my mistake. I apologize, I apologize, I’m very sorry. You must understand that I really love, really respect China and the Chinese people. My apologies. See you.”
It is unclear if Cena’s statement on Taiwan and his later apology had any connection to the box office drop.
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