The Fast & Furious Series

This past weekend, the Fast and Furious movie series had a very successful opening-bringing in $147,187,040 domestically, crushing any other movie currently playing. The successful series introduced its seventh movie called Furious 7. Compared to the previous two movies of the series, where Fast Five earned $86,198,765 its opening weekend and Fast & Furious 6 earning $97,375,245, the seventh of the series is looking like it will be the most successful yet.

Compared to several other movie sequels, the Fast & Furious series has something very rare going here. It's amazing that after this many sequels and new plot twists, the fans have stayed by the franchise's side. Take Grease for example, the sequel-Grease 2, had a revenue that was half of the original (which was made 4 years earlier). Even though the Grease sequel saw a monetary drop in the second movie, it's understandable why they would make the second movie after the success of the first.

Another movie series to consider is the Pirates of the Caribbean. It has now produced four movies and is planning to release its fifth in 2017. While the opening weekend numbers had a significant rise from the first movie to the second and third, the fourth saw a noticeable drop. It will be interesting to see how well the next of the series will do and if the producers will continue to create movies for that series.

One theory to why Furious 7 gained so much more popularity was because of the passing of one of the main characters-Brian, played by Paul Walker. The movie was originally scheduled to release in the summer of 2014, but had to postpone due to the tragedy-as they were still filming scenes when Paul passed. This also led to a different ending to the movie- which may have sparked some curiosity. I myself have not gone to see Furious 7 yet but from what the critics are saying, the movie did a great job of honoring Brian (Paul Walker) and gave a very natural and sincere end to his story.

The big question surrounding this seventh release is if the series will continue onto Fast & Furious 8. If the numbers were talking-a sequel would be a no-brainer, but the series may choose to end with the tribute to the dear cast member. On the contrary, after the interview Vin Diesel had on Jimmy Kimmel, he made many spoiler comments, hinting towards an eighth movie. There are many ways the movie series could spin the story to create the next movie and nearly all of the main cast members have signed a contract that lasts for another three movies- so any Fast & Furious fans out there should be optimistic for the continuation of the multi-billion dollar series.


Have you gone to Furious 7 yet? What did you think?