After opening in theaters across the world, Fast & Furious 9 has proved that there is still plenty of mileage in the Fast & Furious franchise as it became the first movie to cross the $500 million mark globally since the general reopening of theaters, and the third highest grossing movie of the year worldwide - behind two Chinese movies Hi, Mom and Detective Chinatown. It is also the first movie to pass the milestone since 2019, with Warner Bros. Godzilla vs Kong coming in just short at a current $446 million. The movie already broke records when it flew past the $100 million mark quicker than A Quiet Place Part II, which was the first movie to reach that domestic milestone since the pandemic hit theaters early last year.

In the US, A Quiet Place Part II still holds the domestic title, having taken $144 million since its Memorial Day weekend premiere. F9 is currently in second place after only being on release since June 25th with $125 million, making it almost certain to overtake A Quiet Place 2 as the biggest domestic earner of the year so far within the week. However, with Marvel's Black Widow arriving this weekend, there is a question mark hanging over how long it can hold onto the top spot. With many more big releases arriving in the coming months, and Covid restrictions being scaled back gradually, it is likely that these numbers are a sign that movie theaters may not be entirely out of the woods yet, but is definitely making a comeback faster than expected.

F9's turbo-charged box office performance will be a welcome sign that they were right to greenlight back to back filming on the last two movies in the Fast & Furious franchise. It was announced last month that Fast 10 and 11 will be looking for release dates of February 2023 and February 2024 respectively, and Vin Dielsel has said that the two movies will bring his involvement in the franchise to a close, although he has hinted at other stories to be told, which we expect will include the Cipher spin-off with Charlize Theron.

Diesel spoke to ComicBook.com about the plans for his final two Fast movies, which will be directed by F9 helmer Justin Lin. "It is back-to-back. The target release date is 02/23 for the first one and 02/24 for the second one. We were supposed to release this movie last year, prior to the pandemic. So I guess what's different about this release is that we're a year into development and pre-production on Fast 10. And so I'm doing these interviews and it's bizarre because I have to go back to Fast 9. I'm celebrating the release of Fast 9, but I have so much more to celebrate," Diesel shared.

"This franchise was born from the pavement, from the concrete," Diesel told The Associated Press back at the beginning of June. "The world just championed this underdog to a place where it has already surpassed all of these other franchises. But the franchise has a soul, and that soul has to rest."

While many fans will be sorry to see the main Fast & Furious saga come to an end, the final two movies promise to deliver the finale event that the series demands.F9 is currently on a theater-only release across the US.