UPDATED, Sunday, 7:55 AM: As expected, Universal Pictures’ The Fate of the Furious, the eighth installment in this franchise that has spanned 16 years, took the brass ring with $1B overseas this weekend. And it’s no wonder as the film started off with a final $443.2M debut when it dropped in mid-April taking No. 1 spots in all markets where it opened. With a total of $542M worldwide that weekend, it had even bested Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ worldwide bow ($528.96M). IMAX even gave it its widest release to date and it paid off, giving the premium screen company one of the biggest openings in its history.

Universal now has three of the top six international grossers of all time, including Fate’s predecessor Furious 7 ($1.16B) and Jurassic World ($1.01B).

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Boasting the biggest global opening of all time, the biggest international opening weekend of all time, The Fate of the Furious’ estimated total with today’s business will be $1.223B (adding in the $222.9M domestic take). The Fate of the Furious is now, as expected, the 11th highest-grossing film of all time globally.

In China, the film had the largest three-day opening ever in that market ($199.1 million) and has grossed $387.4 million to date (2.7B RMB), to become China’s highest grossing foreign film of all-time.

Most of the box office take overseas for this baby came, not surprisingly, from China where it logged the biggest 3-day start of all time and took the crown for the biggest debut ever for a Hollywood film. The studio can also thank Russia for a tidy sum.

Top markets outside of The Middle Kingdom were Brazil with $41.6M, the U.K. and Ireland with $37.4M, Mexico with $36.98M and Germany with $32.1M.

“To see the eighth installment in a homegrown franchise perform to this level of success around the world is hugely satisfying,” said Duncan Clark, Universal’s President of International Distribution. “It shows the level of commitment from our cast, filmmakers and Universal’s leadership team in Los Angeles who have championed this series for more than 16 years. Around the world, under the guidance of Niels Swinkels and Simon Hewlett’s head office cabinets, our local management teams have worked tirelessly to achieve this brilliant result.”

Fate of the Furious also marks a record opening for an African-American director with F. Gary Gray who helmed this monster.

PREVIOUSLY, Sat. 7:54 AM: The eighth installment of the wildly successful Universal Pictures’ franchise The Fate of the Furious, which was directed by F. Gary Gray, is on track to cross the $1B mark at the international box office tomorrow. This would not be the first time that one of the films in the franchise crossed the $1B mark. Furious 7 also crossed that milestone in 2015.

As of yesterday, the film was sitting at $998.5M, so it is primed and ready to drive past the benchmark tomorrow. It also appears that it’s only the 6th time ever that a film has grabbed the $1B ring, behind Avatar, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Titanic, another Uni film Jurassic World and the aforementioned Furious 7. Avatar remains the leader with $2B overseas and a full total of $2.78B. The James Cameron-helmed film was released in December of 2009. No wonder there are four more pictures to come.

The big reason for The Fate of the Furious to push past the $1B mark internationally is largely due to the all-important China market where it has become the highest-grossing foreign film ever only behind (once again) Furious 7. Fate of the Furious has also been doing stellar business in Japan and ranks as the top performer of the franchise in that country.

Gotta give kudos to the studio’s international team and also how the film utilized the cast, especially in China. More analysis on that tomorrow. In the meantime, the film is one of the highest-grossing films of all time worldwide, ranking No. 11.