'Fast & Furious 7' is China's biggest ever grossing movie

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

BEIJING (AP) — "Fast & Furious 7" has knocked "Transformers: Age of Extinction" off the perch of China's highest grossing movie, demonstrating that Hollywood action and special effects movies are the safest bets in the fast-growing Chinese market.

The movie starring Vin Diesel pulled in 450 million yuan ($74 million) in its second full week, ending Sunday, bringing its total box office takings to 2.02 billion yuan ($332 million), according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Last summer, the fourth "Transformers" film overtook the 2010 "Avatar" to become the biggest grossing movie with $320 million in ticket sales.

In North America, where the street-racing movie is called "Furious 7," it was No. 1 for the fourth weekend and has earned $321 million. The film's worldwide box office crossed the $1 billion mark Friday.