‘Fast Five’ Sets New Record for ‘Fast and Furious’ Franchise

Critics said it would fail, but this just goes to show one should never underestimate the power of a very loyal fanbase, or the combined appeal of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Vin Diesel: “Fast Five” not only opened first over the weekend, but it also managed to set a new grossing record for the entire franchise.

As a recent report on Deadline also confirms, “Fast Five,” the fifth installment in the “Fast and Furious” franchise that promised to do good by all those fans sticking with the franchise even after some mild disappointment, had little competition at the US box office.

Nevertheless, that was not the biggest achievement of the film, because Universal expected it to do fare well, given the loyal fanbase.

“Fast Five” performed so well domestically that it literally set a whole bunch of new records, including that for highest opener of the franchise, with estimates indicating it may very well end its run with a $500 million global tally.

“In terms of records, Universal is claiming: the biggest opening in Universal history (besting Lost World: Jurassic Park’s $72.1M), the biggest opening of 2011 (besting Rio’s $39.2M), the biggest Universal opening for 2011 (besting Hop’s $37.5M), the highest opening for an April Release (besting Fast & Furious’ $71M), the highest opening for the last weekend in April (besting A Nightmare On Elm Street’s $39M), the highest opening for stars Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, and producer Neil Moritz, and director Justin Lin,” Deadline writes.

“Fast Five opened first overseas 10 days ago and this weekend grossed a huge $45.3M at 3,211 dates in just 14 territories. That raised its early international tally to $81.4M. So now the worldwide total stands at a whopping $165M,” the e-zine further reports.

Estimates have it that the film will end its run with total of $500 million, even with “Thor” opening in the US and some other territories this Friday, which may cost “Fast Five” a segment of the niche audience.

Officially, the summer blockbuster has begun – and with a very surprising release, for that matter, as Universal Chairman Adam Fogelson also points out for Deadline.

“Here’s what I’m most proud of: there is nothing obvious about what happened. No one can say of course every single decision how it was going to be made, how it was going to be cast, when it was going to be dated, how it was going to be sold, was very strategically thought out. There is no reason for the 5th movie in a franchise to have pulled off what this pulled off,” Fogelson says.