We have a box office race! Fast and Furious 9 just moved across the movie calendar -- again. This is what happens when you announce a movie and give it a release date years in advance.
Universal Pictures just drove Fast and Furious 9 from April 10, 2020 to its new date of May 22, 2020.
That new date opens Fast 9 over next year's Memorial Day weekend. So it sounds like a vote of confidence, as well as a way to give the production six more weeks to make the movie. (Question: Would that be enough time to add in people like Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, or no?)
Previously, as Variety noted, Fast and Furious 9 was set to open April 19, 2019. That would've had it open just before Avengers: Endgame this year. Not a great time to show up, so good on them for changing it to April of next year. Both of those were Easter weekends. Now Fast 9 has moved again to Memorial Day weekend, which is known for being the unofficial start of summer and a huge weekend for blockbuster movies.
Since Memorial Day weekend is known for being a movie weekend, there are already some residents on the May 22, 2020 calendar -- including Godzilla vs. Kong and The SpongeBob Movie. We recently noted how SpongeBob's move to that date would put it up against Godzilla vs. Kong. The SpongeBob movie would probably skew younger, but you have to imagine the Godzilla and Fast franchise audiences have a lot of overlap.
It's possible one or more of those films will move again, and it's also possible more films will join them on the Memorial Day 2020 calendar. There's still a year to go before any of that happens, and studios always carefully watch the competition, read the tracking tea leaves, and do whatever they think is best for their films. Sometimes they get it right, and other times (no Star Wars movie this past December = Aquaman billion dollar domination) they misfire.
As The Rock recently pointed out when a reality TV star complained about all of the Fast and Furious movies, the franchise has made more than $5 billion at the box office at this point. The Rock's Hobbs and Shaw movie is coming out this August as the first but not the last spinoff.
Fast and Furious 9 will be followed by Fast and Furious 10, which was given a release date of April 2, 2021, but don't go thinking that will last. If the ninth movie has already moved twice, there's a good chance the 10th movie will shift around too.
So far, not everyone has signed on for Fast and Furious 9. We know Jordana Brewster is coming back as Mia Toretto, but Michelle Rodriguez was waiting to read the script to see if she'd return.
If Fast and Furious 10 is indeed the final movie in the franchise, you have to hope everyone who can return does return. Obviously Paul Walker will always be the missing piece, and there are some fans who think the franchise should've ended after he died. But it's too late for that now, so hopefully the Fast team has a plan for a strong ending. No more feuds.
Since we're taking it all one year at a time, keep up with all of the 2019 dates with our handy movie release schedule. And stay tuned for any updates on these movies blinking and moving to a less competitive release date -- if there even is one.
