Furious 7 busted the record for the Fast & Furious franchise in its Thursday night opening.

At $15.8 million, Furious 7 obliterated the opening of Fast & Furious 6, which sat at $6.5 million.

At IMAX locations alone, fans of the franchise rolled in to see Furious 7 to the tune of $2.2 million. That would be the third-best number for Thursday previews after The Dark Knight Rises and Iron Man 3.

In fact, Furious 7 is doing so well, that it is the best showing in recent times for any film after The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 1. Mockingjay took in $17 million during its Thursday night premiere, and went on to make a staggering $121.9 million debut back in November.

Whether or not Furious 7 will do as well as The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 1 remains to be seen, but there is no doubt that people were super excited to see this movie.

Many flooded in to see Furious 7 because they are fans of the franchise, but some are seeing it because it was Paul Walker‘s last movie before he died in a car crash during filming.

During an early screening of Furious 7 in Los Angeles last month, Vin Diesel choked up when talking about his “brother”, Paul Walker.

“This was a labor of love. It was in some ways the hardest movie I ever had to do because the relationships that you see on film are so real,” he said of Furious 7.

He added, “When the tragedy happened, I lost my best friend. I lost my brother.”

As he was speaking, Vin Diesel became emotional and had to pause to gather himself, but the crowd was quick with cheers of support for the Furious 7 star.

At the end, he concluded, “More importantly, it’s for my brother there,” and pointed at Walker’s image on the screen.

Have you seen Furious 7 yet? What did you think?