What does the continued box office success mean for the future use of the “Fast and Furious” intellectual property in Universal Destinations and Experience locations?

“Fast X,” the latest “Fast and Furious” movie, opened in theatres recently with a solid box office performance. The popularity of the “Fast and Furious” movies lives on. “Fast X” also made a fantastic showing regarding box office revenue in China.

With Universal Destinations and Experiences, future details are always hard to acquire officially. However, based on the USA and international box office reports about the “Fast X” movie after opening weekend, we should expect more expansion of this very popular Universal property.

IMAX China

For example, “Fast X” delivered China’s largest IMAX single-day sales total since the Chinese New Year. This happened on May 20.

IMAX China sped to a blazing start for the 2023 summer box office season with the strong debut of Universal’s “Fast X,” which delivered $8.3 million in its five-day opening across IMAX screens in China. The latest “Fast & Furious” installment drove IMAX China to its biggest opening weekend for a foreign film this year.

“Fast X” delivered $2.6 million on Saturday in IMAX, scoring IMAX’s biggest single box office day in China this year after the Chinese New Year. Nine of the top ten locations during the opening weekend were IMAX theaters.

Not only did a significant percentage of Chinese movie-goers want to see this film. They wanted to spend the extra money to see it in IMAX.

“The Fast and the Furious franchise has always been a super IP in China, and we are delighted that the summer blockbuster season arrived with the strong debut of Fast X,” said IMAX China CEO Daniel Manwaring, “The IMAX box office and increased market share generated with this franchise continues to demonstrate the Chinese audience’s increased preference for choosing IMAX to experience blockbusters. With the release of our strong and diversified summer slate, we are confident that IMAX theaters across the country will become the go-to entertainment destinations for the summer.

In addition, “Fast X” also won the box office revenue top prize in Korea. Initial reports reflect solid opening weekend performances worldwide for “Fast X.”

Future Use of “Fast and Furious”

What does this mean for the future use of “Fast and Furious” at Universal Destination and Experiences locations worldwide? Well, with a significant Universal theme park resort in China and this box office report, we should expect more attractions based on “Fast and Furious” to come there.

“Fast and Furious”: Tram Tour and Supercharged Effect

No matter how much people love the “Fast and Furious” movies, the theme park attractions have been sub-par. The “Fast and Furious” portion of the Universal Studios Hollywood Tram Tour might be the worst part of that attraction. The Fast and Furious: Supercharged attraction at Universal Studios Florida continues to receive understandable scathing reviews from guests.

Will Universal Experiences and Destinations finally create a decent “Fast and Furious” attraction? If the speculation turns out to be accurate, “Fast and Furious” fans might receive a theme park attraction that reflects the popcorn movie nature of the popular franchise.

Rumored “Fast and Furious” Roller Coaster Coming to Universal Studios Hollywood

Despite all the understandable hate that the Fast and Furious: Supercharged attraction received at Universal Studios Florida, Universal Destinations and Experiences looks to be adding a new “Fast and Furious” themed roller coaster to Universal Studios Hollywood. Since “Fast and Furious” continues to be a box-office success for Universal, adding more attractions featuring this property should not be surprising. If this rumored coaster happens, then we should expect to see versions of this coaster open in Asian markets also based on the apparent interest in the movie franchise.

We know back before the whole world shut down in 2020, a “blue-sky” idea was being worked out by Universal to build a roller coaster on the hillside at Universal Studios Hollywood. Every major theme park company constantly has numerous ideas in the works for new attractions, so “blue-sky” ideas mean nothing in the big picture by themselves.

However, in November 2022, Universal Studios Hollywood announced that Universal’s “Animal Actors” and “Special Effects” shows and the Production Central Store would close permanently in early Jan. 2023. All Universal Hollywood Studios has stated officially about this is that these areas will close to make way for “a future attraction.” With the closure of the “Animal Actors” and the “Special Effects” shows, speculation grew that a new coaster attraction would be coming to Universal Studios Hollywood.

Nothing Official

In typical Universal Destinations and Experiences fashion, no information about this rumored “Fast and Furious” roller coaster has been released.  However, Alicia Stella, a respected sifter of theme park rumors, indicated in mid-2022 that this coaster would be coming to Universal Studio Florida.

Of course, this company claimed that the Jurassic World Velocicoaster was just some landscaping work, even when people could see coaster tracks being built. This led to the eventual “Churro Stand” joke about Velocicoaster.

In fairness, we have nothing official from Universal Studios Hollywood. We will stick to commonly expected information to discuss this rumored “Fast and Furious” coaster.

We expect the entrance to this coaster to be at the upper lot near the area where the two shows were closed. The coaster track will take guests on a fast and possibly furious ride toward the lower lot. Then, the roller coaster will launch guests back up towards the upper lot. We expect the rumored coaster to cause riders to feel like they are “drifting” to fully embrace the “Fast and Furious” franchise.

If speculation is accurate, we should soon see some construction at Universal Studios Hollywood giving this coaster away like construction gave away Velocicoaster. Of course, this is Universal, so plans change.

With the rumor of a plan to build a Donkey Kong-themed coaster also floating in the rumor mill building on the Super Nintendo World area of Universal Studios Hollywood, big things could be happening there in preparation for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

However, based on the continued worldwide box office success of “Fast and Furious,” Universal Experiences and Destinations needs to get the next attraction based on this movie franchise right. If they do, fans should expect this attraction to be replicated overseas.

What About Orlando?

With Universal’s Epic Universe opening in Orlando in 2025, guests should not expect an upgrade or removal of Fast and Furious: Supercharged at Universal Studios Florida. However, we can have hope. Or at least we can have family!

What do you think will happen regarding theme parks and this movie franchise in the next five years? Let us know in the comments below.