Fast & Furious 8 has raced to a global box office record for an opening weekend, taking an estimated $532.5m (£425m) worldwide.
The action thriller, which stars Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and Dwayne Johnson as street car racers, reached that total despite a drop-off in opening weekend takings in North America from its predecessor. The latest instalment took $100.2m in the region, enough to top the US charts but significantly less than Fast & Furious 7, which made $147.2m in its opening weekend.
The figures for Fast & Furious 8 (titled The Fate of the Furious in the US) were boosted by takings in foreign markets. The film took $423.3m altogether, across 63 territories. A hefty proportion of that total came from China, where the film set a record for the biggest three-day opening weekend, taking $190m. (Although Chinese cinemas only give studios about 25% of ticket sales, roughly half of what they receive in most other major territories.)