China Box Office: 'Hobbs & Shaw' Targets Sizzling $112M Debut

The 'Fast & Furious' spinoff scored a near-record $34.5 million on its first day of play in the world's second-largest moviegoing market.

Three weeks after its North American debut, Universal's Hobbs & Shaw is doing huge business in its China launch.

The spinoff started off with $34.5 million on Friday, the second-biggest opening day of the year for a foreign film, behind Disney and Marvel's record-setting Avengers: Endgame. And overall, it's the seventh-biggest opening day of all time.

That puts Hobbs & Shaw — teaming Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham — on course for a stellar weekend gross of $112 million. That's notably more than the film's $60 million debut in North America, underscoring the enduring popularity of the action franchise in China, as well as Johnson and Statham's star power.

The previous two installments in the Fast and Furious franchise were historic earners in China. Furious 7 pulled in $391 million in 2015, followed by The Fate of the Furious with $392 million in 2017.

Both totals were all-time box office records at the time, and both films earned more there than they did in North America (Furious 7 topped out at $353 million domestically and Fast 8 did $226 million).

China's grosses will propel Hobbs & Shaw well past $500 million globally by the end of Sunday. Through Thursday, the film's worldwide cume was $443 million.