Fast And Furious 7 Scores Biggest Opening In History

Today in Tha Wire, Fast and Furious 7 blows the roof off the box office, plus find out how much rapper/actor Ja Rule turned down to do Furious 2 and why it was the dumbest decision of his life.

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Fast and Furious 7 opened over the weekend and shattered any previous record the franchise film ever had. The movie's director is non other than, John Singleton and right about now he's gotta be the happiest brotha on earth. AllHipHop reports Furious 7 took in a whopping $143.6 million nationally and another $384 million worldwide this weekend!

Variety.com reports the box office monster also landed the no. 9 spot, putting the movie among the top 10 biggest openings in history. As you know, the late Furious actor, Paul Walker was in the middle of filming 7 when he died in a tragic car accident last year. This of course powered movie fans curiosity as to how Singleton would end his character in the film.

By the way, AllHipHop reports coming in at no. 2 at the box office this weekend was Rihanna’s animated debut in the DreamWork’s movie, Home. RiRi's cute little flick earned another $27.4 million and Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell's, Get Hard landed in the three spot bringing in $12.9 million.

With all the popularity and money-making opportunities of the Fast and Furious films, you would think any actor would jump at the chance to reprise their role, right? You'd be wrong! Rapper/actor Ja Rule actually turn down his opportunity to star in Furious 2 and opened the door for, then, up and coming rapper/actor Ludacris.

John Singleton told Grantland.com, Ja's rap career had really taken off back then. So, he decided not to return for the second part of the series. This was a HUGE mistake on his part, especially given the fact that he was offer $500,000 for the role!

Singleton told Grantland:

Ja got too big for himself. He turned it down. He turned down a half a million dollars… He got 15 grand to be in the first movie. He was really big at that time. I guess Murder Inc. was throwing out hits and were making money hand over foot. He was acting like he was too big to be in the sequel. He wouldn’t return calls. I went to the studio to go see him — that’s just my mantra, I deal with a lot of music people. He was kinda playing me to the side and I was like, “What? What is this s**t?”

Ja's dumb decision, changed Ludacris' life. Not only did Luda go on to star in other Furious sequels, but blockbuster films including Academy Award winning Crash, Hustle & Flow, and more! I'd be willing to bet anything, Ja Rule will regret walking away from his Fast and Furious role for the rest of his life.

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