'Furious 7' Beats 'Captain America: Winter Soldier's' Pre-Sale Record

Furious 7, the seventh installment in the Fast & Furious film series, is set for release on April 3 but it has already broken records as far as pre-sales goes, surpassing those of last year's Captain America: The Winter Soldier to become April's biggest pre-seller just before 2 pm Wednesday, according to online ticket broker Fandango [via The Wrap].

The margin will even increase further as Furious 7 opens in 4,003 theaters in North America and 10,500 overseas. It is also getting a record IMAX theater release of more than 810 of the chain's locations globally. If it tops $115 million in its debut at the box office, it will beat the mark for biggest April opening weekend set last year by Captain America: Winter Soldier's $95 million take.

According to Fandango, theater owners reported hundreds of sold-out Furious 7 screenings and were scrambling to create additional show times for the action sequel. A survey taken by the online ticket broker also revealed that 86 percent of ticket buyers said they were planning to see it more than once, and 91 percent said they were looking forward to the next film in the franchise.

Directed by James Wan from a screenplay written by Chris Morgan, the film is set to take place just after Fast & Furious 6. Events will be shown unfolding as a result of a revenge plot that will be hatched by Ian Shaw (Jason Statham) for the death of his brother Owen in London.

After defeating Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) and his men in Fast & Furious 6, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) and the rest of the crew are finally able to return to the United States where they were about to live the normal life again they wanted, but that is until Owen's older brother, Ian, came along.

Ian is seeking revenge for the death of his brother, putting Dominic and the entire crew in danger once more. After learning of Han's death, the crew sets out to find the man who killed one of their own, before he finds them first. As seen in Fast & Furious 6, Han was killed after his car has hit hard by another car. The other car's driver walks away from the scene and calls Dominic, leaving him a message: "You don't know me. You're about to."

"Brian O'Conner," the character portrayed by Paul Walker who died on November 30, 2013, in a tragic car accident before the film's completion, will be allowed to retire from the crew and will be given a fitting, peaceful send off from the franchise. His unfinished scenes in the movie have already been shot using CGI for his face and voice and his brothers Caleb and Cody as stands-in for his body.

Aside from Vin Diesel and the late Paul Walker, the Furious 7 cast also have stars Dwayne Johnson (Luke Hobbs), Michelle Rodriguez (Letty Ortiz), Jordana Brewster (Mia Toretto), Lucas Black (Sean Boswell), Tyrese Gibson (Roman Pearce) and Ludacris (Tej Parker) returning to reprise their original roles. They will be joined by an additional cast which includes Statham, Kurt Russel, Ronda Roussey, Ali Fazal, Tony Jaa, Djimon Hounsou and Romeo Santos.