F. Gary Gray Is Now The Highest-Grossing Black Director In History

Following the release of The Fate of the Furious, director F. Gary Gray has now become the highest-grossing black director in history.

The eighth installment in the Fast and Furious franchise debuted at No. 1 at the box office, pulling in over $532 million worldwide this past weekend (domestically, the film earned over $100 million).

Prior to Gray being the most successful black director to date, it was Tim Story. Story's films have grossed $1.21 billion worldwide since 2005's Fantastic Four, with his 2014 buddy cop action comedy Ride Along (and its sequel) adding to that.

Gray's movies have amassed $1.24 billion since 1995's Friday and 2015's Straight Outta Compton.

Considering The Fate of the Furious just dropped, the movie is sure to make even more money, which will make Gray's latest accomplishment as a director that much better.

This has been a notable year for records being broken by black directors. Jordan Peele, director of Get Out, recently took the top three spot for the highest-grossing R-rated horror movie of all time, only behind films The Exorcist and Hannibal.

Peele also made history as the first black writer-director to score $100 million for a film debut, a big deal not only for being a commercially successful movie but because of how much the movie actually was to make (a modest $5 million).