"Fast X" made off with millions in its opening weekend.
Here's how the film maintained the franchise's box office muscle, ten movies deep.
Longtime fans of "The Fast and the Furious" franchise tend to make an event out of the
debut of each new chapter.
"Fast X" is the 10th film in the main series and 11th overall, putting "Fast" movies in
a rare class with long-running franchises like "Star Wars," "Star Trek," the Marvel
Cinematic Universe, and James Bond.
Though there might not be "Fast" TV tie-ins on the scale of "Star Wars" or the MCU, the
series nevertheless has a loyal and active fandom that has historically shown up on opening weekend.
From 2009's "Fast and Furious" onward, the "Fast" movies have all raked in at least $60
million domestically in the first weekend of their theatrical run.
"Liquid gold!"
2015's "Furious 7" was the biggest of the bunch, banking nearly $150 million in its
first three days.
Every other installment has come in respectably but still under $100 million.
Six of the "Fast" films with big opening weekends went on to gross more than half a billion
dollars worldwide, so things look good for "Fast X" on the whole.
That said, two factors throw a wrench into what would otherwise be unqualified success.
The $67.5 million domestic take for "Fast X" is the second lowest since "Fast and Furious,"
beating only the side project, "Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw," which debuted with
about $60 million.
The latest film's $340 million production budget also far exceeds the rest of the franchise,
which means "Fast X" will have to do much better by the end of its run just to break even.
"Fast X" might not have lit the domestic box office on fire, but its international receipts
are smoking hot.
The film's $318.9 million global total is the second best of the year so far behind
"The Super Mario Bros. Movie."
When taking the U.S. figure out of the equation, it's the single best international debut of 2023.
Worldwide ticket sales are where the "Fast" films have managed to hold steady and even
make gains, while sci-fi and superhero franchises have struggled lately.
To paint a better picture, let's compare "Fast X" and "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."
"Fast X" grossed more than $250 million internationally in its first weekend, while the third "Ant-Man"
film barely crossed $100 million.
"Fast X" did particularly well in China, but it also performed admirably in Italy and Brazil,
two countries that serve as locations in the globetrotting action film.
"All right, dorks, what are we blowing up?
What?
The Vatican?"
More proof that spectacle — in this case, spectacular car chases, physics-defying stunts,
and epic explosions — is a universal language?
"Fast X" had a strong opening on IMAX screens.
The film made about $22 million from the more expensive tickets sold for that format, and
the majority of IMAX ticket sales, $16.2 million, came from overseas.
"Fast X" benefitted from the fact that it hit theaters at the very beginning of the
summer movie season, before the marquees got too crowded with big-name blockbusters.
One reason for its $318.9 million worldwide opening is simply a lack of competition.
It's been seven weeks since "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" hit screens, so the majority
of viewers who wanted to see the video game adaptation have already seen it.
"Mario" is also available to rent or purchase via video-on-demand by now, which likely steered
even more moviegoers to "Fast X."
"Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3" has been holding its own at the box office, nearing
the $700 million mark in worldwide ticket sales.
But its two-week head start made some room for whatever audience overlap there is between
"Guardians 3" and "Fast X."
Elsewhere down the list is R-rated fare such as "Evil Dead Rise," which was in its fifth
week, and "John Wick: Chapter 4," in its ninth.
There was also the warmer, fluffier "Book Club: The Next Chapter" and "Are You There
God? It's Me, Margaret."
Had "Fast X" contended with "The Flash," "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," or "Mission:
Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One," it may not have conquered the box office quite
so handily.
"Fast" movies have never been prestige cinema.
Even so, about half of the entries in the franchise have scored decently well with critics,
with "Furious 7" and "Fast Five" coming in at the top.
It took a while for critics to catch on to what audiences already knew.
The early "Fast" films linger at the bottom of Rotten Tomatoes' ranking, probably in part
because reviewers didn't have a sense of what the over-the-top franchise was trying to do.
Many of the positive comments pertaining to the later films praise them for self-awareness
and sheer fun.
Unfortunately for "Fast X," though, the critical community is divided.
Even those who had good things to say about the film are mostly muted in their praise,
while those who disliked it haven't held back with their complaints.
Critics have compared it to sustaining a head injury, referring to the script as something
that an eight-year-old could have written.
Others simply call it loud and dumb.
But that hasn't deterred fans who took to Rotten Tomatoes and social media sites, where
they have the film's back.
"Fast X" currently has an 86 percent audience score compared to its 54 percent critical
Tomatometer rating.
Viewers seem to appreciate the plot twists as well as the non-stop action.
And since the general public is who's buying the tickets and the popcorn, especially for
a deep-into-the-franchise movie like "Fast X," they're a better predictor of a movie's
bottom line.
One thing that most critics and fans agree on is that Jason Momoa is a worthwhile addition
to "The Fast and the Furious" family.
From Vin Diesel and Jason Statham to John Cena and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, the sprawling
cast was already pretty full up on middle-aged muscly men.
The 43-year-old Momoa, who also plays Aquaman, is arguably a similar type of actor.
They don't always get credit for their craft, and if we're being honest, fans don't really
come to see their movies for humanistic performances in the first place.
And like with the DCEU, the franchise itself is the brand name.
Like many of his cohorts, Momoa is a well-liked celebrity who audiences are happy to see in
movies, but whether he was a reliable box office draw was still an open question.
It's not necessarily Momoa's star power that convinced viewers to come out for "Fast X";
more likely it was the strong buzz he earned for his performance as the series' newest
villain, Dante Reyes.
The actor told Variety that he conceived of Reyes as an androgynous, vengeful peacock.
"I'm Dante.
Enchante."
The son of the drug lord slain in "Fast Five," Reyes has a predilection for nail polish and
colorful cars.
While critics, fans, and Momoa himself acknowledge that the performance is over-the-top, the
consensus is that's a good thing.
Dante Reyes is an entertaining presence who steals the movie.
Also, the rest of the cast is stacked.
While "The Fast and the Furious" films feature more than their fair share of standout action
set pieces, arguably only a few of the 11 installments have risen to the level of legitimately
good filmmaking. 2011's "Fast Five" and 2015's "Furious 7" are frequently cited as the franchise's
high points.
"Fast X" director Louis Leterrier told Entertainment Weekly that the fifth film is "easily the
best," and his 10th film is essentially a direct "Fast Five" sequel.
Leterrier reframes the infamous safe chase by adding in the perspective of Dante Reyes,
who is knocked off a bridge in Rio while his father, Hernan, is killed.
This becomes the motivation for Momoa's character, who wants justice for his father's death and
the loss of his family's fortune.
Dipping back into past narratives and even changing what the audience has seen before
is a tactic that "The Fast and the Furious" series has employed again and again, often
with crowd-pleasing results.
Since the word was out that "Fast X" had strong connections to "Fast Five," it's reasonable
to think some fans, perhaps even some who haven't kept up with the entire series, showed
up to see how the former would tie into the latter.
Even some of the "Fast" franchise's most ardent supporters thought that the film series may
have finally jumped the shark with "F9," a movie in which, among other physics and logic-defying
feats, Tej and Roman enter actual space in a rocket car.
"Man, this is insane.
We are headed to outer space.
You acting like we on the way to Home Depot."
What started as a standalone film about street racing based on a real piece of investigative
journalism has become an ever more purposefully unbelievable collage of cinematic stunts,
with each subsequent sequel feeling the pressure to up the ante.
"Fast X" tones things down ever so slightly, but we're still a long way from good old-fashioned
drag racing in downtown Los Angeles.
And that's more than okay with fans: They've come to expect ridiculous, death-defying hijinks
that either wouldn't work in the first place or would absolutely kill a human being who
wasn't wearing franchise plot armor.
"If it could be done in a car, they did it.
If it violates the laws of god and gravity, they did it twice."
Yes, "Fast X" is more kinetic energy than comprehensible plot, and yes, there's some
egregious superheroification of the characters as well as obvious fan service.
But is anyone going to a "Fast and the Furious" sequel this deep into the franchise hoping
for subtlety?
We think not.
Even those who can't help but point out how nonsensical the movie is also can't stop themselves
from enjoying it.
If there's one thing people know about "The Fast and the Furious" — including people
who've never seen a single film in the series — it's that, even more than they are about
cars, these movies are about family.
"I don't have friends.
I got family."
For an in-joke to work itself into the culture so thoroughly that practically everyone gets
it, the "Fast" franchise must be doing something right.
"Fast X" not only utters the word more times than viewers can count, but it also makes
good on its central theme, exploring the bonds between fathers and sons especially.
The Toretto family tree is pretty twisty and branchy, and allegiances turn on a dime whenever
the plot requires it.
For a franchise that’s been going strong for over two decades, it’s become a necessary
part of the design.
One way to think of the "Fast" movies is as a gritty, testosterone-fueled, big-budget
soap opera.
Fans that have stuck with the series follow their favorite characters and try to guess
who will backstab or make amends with who.
For all the slingshotted cars and races against trains, these movies do have a human element
to them, and one that's surprisingly earnest, particularly when compared to other hyper-masculine,
high-octane action movies.
Maybe all that fire and metal gives audiences the cover they need to enjoy what's really
just a sappy story at heart.
The biggest box office successes of all time — the "Fast" films among them — almost
all have something in common: They're rated PG-13.
The PG-13 rating stretches from the later installments in the "Harry Potter" franchise
to the most recent "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie, which features the MCU's first-ever F-bomb.
It's not exactly an informative measure of a film's family friendliness.
But generally speaking, it affords families (at least those with slightly older children)
the ability to take everyone to the movie theater for the night.
That typically gives an automatic boost to PG-13 titles.
Teens and adults won't always seek out G or PG films on their own, while younger audiences
are prohibited from movies that receive an R-rating.
"Fast X" and its PG-13 rating falls squarely in line with other broadly appealing box office
behemoths like "Avatar," "Titanic," "Star Wars," "Jurassic Park," and last year's big
hit, "Top Gun: Maverick."
In a cultural atmosphere where identity politics can quickly derail a film's mass appeal, "Fast
X" manages to remain uncontroversial.
That helped its performance at home, where, admittedly, the franchise has been stalling
out a bit, and it certainly helped abroad, where big-budget films have to play ball with
some countries' conservative censors.