Hispanics made up a whopping 37 percent of the 'Furious 7' audience this weekend

Furious 7, the final installment of the Fast and Furious movie franchise, brought in $143.6 million in its opening weekend in the U.S., according to Box Office Mojo. That’s good enough for the 9th-best opening weekend of all time.

And Hispanic moviegoers made up a “whopping” 37 percent of that audience, according to Universal exit polls cited by Box Office Mojo.

That demographic now comprises 23 percent of all movie ticket sales despite being just 17 percent of the population, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. By contrast, Caucasians are 63 percent of the population but notched only 54 percent of tickets sold.

Here’s the same trend reflected as per-capita attendance:

With the exception of Guardians of the Galaxy, last year’s top-grossing movies all had Hispanic shares that approximately matched or exceeded the group’s overall share of the U.S. population.

Furious 7‘s audience was also split between men (51 percent) and women, and skewed a bit older (56 percent over the age of 25), Box Office Mojo reports.

The film is expected to make at least $300 million, the site predicts, thanks to strong reviews and zero competition for the next three weeks. That would immediately make it the most successful movie of 2015 and put it among the highest grossing films of the decade (No. 1, The Avengers, is likely out of reach at more than $600 million).

Rob covers business, economics and the environment for Fusion. He previously worked at Business Insider. He grew up in Chicago.