The latest Fast and the Furious film has raced past the one billion US dollar mark at the global box office.

The eighth instalment of the high-octane franchise starring Vin Diesel – entitled The Fate of the Furious – is the second movie to reach the milestone this year, after Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Approximately 30 films have made a billion  dollars worldwide, including blockbusters Avatar, Titanic and Frozen.

The Fate of the Furious has already beaten Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Jurassic World to the biggest worldwide debut of all time, after taking $532 million when it opened.

Its predecessor, Furious 7, also made more than a billion dollars

The Universal Pictures release is top of the US box office for the third week in a row after adding another $19.4 million to its tally.

Its predecessor, Furious 7, also made more than a billion dollars.

There was additional interest in that film due to the death of actor Paul Walker, who played cop turned street racer Brian O’Conner.

He died in a car crash in 2013 while the film was still in production. The latest instalment also helped China’s box office sales grow at their fast pace in over a year in April.

Monthly ticket sales jumped nearly 57 per cent from the same period a year ago to 4.9 billion yuan ($707.5 million), data from box office tracker EntGroup showed, the largest monthly growth since February last year. Universal Pictures is planning two more movies in the franchise, which has earned an estimated $4.4 billion globally.