As long-lived franchise IP goes, it’s hard to beat the Fast & Furious and its near-endless iterations. But as the post-pandemic box office has shown, nostalgia, predictable experiences, and a recognisable brand name can do wonders for a film’s bottom line. As the saga of the Toretto family pushes the franchise over several key global benchmarks, Blake & Wang P.A’s Brandon Blake, our entertainment law firms los angeles and industry insider on the ground, has the details.
Record-Breaking $7B
Across all installments of the franchise, Fast & Furious has crossed the $7B in global takings mark. This splits into almost $2B domestic and just over $5B international. This makes it only the fifth series of films to do so. It also ties them with Warner Bros’ Harry Potter franchise for the least number of movies needed to get to that benchmark.
Much as the franchise is often lampooned for being both ever-present and rather predictable, it’s also been an IP which has demonstrated steady and continuous growth since the 2001 initial film. It weathered the pandemic reasonably well, and there’s been a notable acceleration in takings for the franchise since 2009.
Universal Takes $1B At The Domestic Box Office
Additionally, we’ve seen Universal (its Focus titles included) reach the $1B mark at the domestic box office this week- the quickest Universal has reached this benchmark in the last decade. This also makes it the first studio to reach that benchmark this year, holding about 32% of the market currently. The final push for this benchmark, of course, comes on the back of the latest Fast and Furious installment, Fast X. The film is currently sitting just over the $500M global mark and still tracking well at multiple box offices globally, including $89M at the Chinese box office.
It’s a great record for the franchise, but also another positive step forward for the overall box office recovery, so it’s well worth celebrating.
