In 10 days of release, the box office can break 700 million, the Douban score has slipped from the initial break 7 to 6.4 today, and "Fast and Furious 10" is not satisfactory from the box office to the word of mouth. According to Maoyan's latest predictions, its final box office will not exceed 900 million. 22 years, 10, it can be said that the "Fast and Furious" series is one of the few world-famous IP movies, it used to be the youth of a generation of "family", but now, even the family is beginning to get tired of it.
Author | Qaqake (Author of Cultural Industry Review, Researcher of Sanchuanhui Cultural Tourism Research Institute)
Editorial | time
Edit | peninsula
Source | Cultural Industry Review
In 2015, "Fast 7" grossed 2.423 billion at the mainland box office, topping the annual box office of imported films in the mainland.
Two years later, "Fast 8" no longer has the core starring Paul Walker who died in a car accident, and the quality of the film has been significantly reduced compared with the previous work, but the box office still greatly crushed "Despicable Me", "Spider-Man", "Transformers" and other top IPs.
Not only did it top the annual box office champion of imported films in the mainland without suspense, but it also set the highest record in the "Quick" series with 2.67 billion.
△ The picture is from Maoyan Pro
With the rapid progress of the mainland box office market and the birth of "Wolf Warrior 2", industry insiders can't help but wonder: What height can the "Fast Furious" series reach? Is 2 billion+ its limit?
At that time, if the "Quick" series can be filmed in the tenth part in the future, everyone will believe it.
But if "Furious 10" not only gathers Vin Diesel, Jason Statham, Wonder Woman, Peacemaker, Black Adam, but also strongly increases the number of villains "Aquaman", but the box office will only be about 1/3 of "Furious 8", I am afraid that not many people will believe it.
△ The picture is from Maoyan Pro
Starting from "Furious 8", through "Furious 9" and "Furious 9", Furious : Special Ops, the mainland box office of this series of movies has always exceeded that of North America, and this "Furious 10" is no exception.
But while the mainland is muted, "Furious 10" only collected $67 million in North America on the first weekend, and the weekday fell to less than 1/3 of Sunday, far inferior to "Guardians of the Galaxy 3" in the same period.
The world's two major box offices, the box office myth is no longer there, the "Quick" series, what happened?
The B-grade myth of "Fast Furious"
To answer this question, one needs to look at how successful the Furious series was.
At the beginning of the birth of "Fast Furious", it was not as flying into the sky as it is now, let alone as it is today, but it was just a subculture film about drag racing.
With $38 million, this scale of investment is only a small B-grade film for Universal Pictures and the huge Hollywood film industry.
In order to investigate the recent carjacking cases of the speeding party, the newly promoted police officer Brian (played by Paul Walker) broke into the speeding party with his superb car skills, and was appreciated and trusted by its gang leader Donald (Vin Diesel).
But over time, Brian developed a strong emotional bond with the speeding party.
He is in love with Mia and cherishes Elder Don; The speeding party either respected or hostile to him. Finally, at the last minute, he chose to let Donald go.
This film, released in 2001, hit the American youth almost perfectly, achieving $144 million in North America, and the global box office exceeded the $200 million mark, plus related income such as video discs, it can be said that the return on investment is quite expensive.
With the initial success, everything that followed seemed so logical.
And the few movies after the "Quick" series, the plots are also very different. Handsome guys and beauties, street drag racing, and family culture can be called the three-board axe of the "Fast Furious" series in the B-grade film generation.
To some extent, Brian is very similar to Chen Jiaju in the "Police Story" series, who is good, jealous as hatred, and dares to break the rules, but he disdains the "mainstream culture" of the police and faintly gives people a feeling that he yearns for "underground".
In "Furious 4", due to the backtracking of the American police, this feature of Brian was accelerated and amplified.
The US police arrested Boss Don and did not want to see Brian, who was a close friend in prison, and could not bear it, and staged a traditional drama of "Li Kui's robbery of the court".
Just like in "Casting a Name", in order to win the trust of the two brothers Zhao Erhu and Jiang Wuyang, Pang Qingyun killed a stranger who had no ability to resist before he could officially worship as brothers.
After receiving the "Letter of Surrender", Brian cut off from the past, and he joined the speeding party and became the second-in-command of this underground force.
They drink alcohol, race cars, and rob luxury cars, but they are good men and women, with family in their hearts and driving natural gods.
It is not necessary to care about the general geometry of this culture and the geometry of audience recognition, as long as it can provide enough visual impact and enough adrenaline secretion, it is enough.
With low star positions and low overall investment, we can draw a fact.
That is, the initial success of the "Fast and Furious" series is really due to "speed" and "passion".
But in the end, the series was also largely ruined by "speed" and "passion".
The success and loneliness of mainstream action movies
From the fifth part, the "Fast and Furious" series has been upgraded to an A-grade action movie, which has become a Hollywood blockbuster in the mainstream perception of the public.
Investment has increased, battles have increased, and action scenes have continued to improve, but correspondingly, the shots of pure drag racing have been repeatedly reduced.
The protagonists not only no longer race and grab cars everywhere, but almost joined the US police and became supernumeraries of the FBI, Rio, Tokyo, Moscow, and even space, everywhere they do tasks.
Donald's mantra is no longer "fuck", but "family".
Of course, we can say that the "Furious series" lost its original fans from "Furious 5".
But on the other hand, it is precisely because of this choice that the global popularity of the starring actor has been continuously improved, and the later parts of the "Quick" series have been a huge success at the box office.
"Furious 5" $663 million, "Furious 6" $788 million, "Furious 7" because it is Paul Walker's last film, rose nearly 100% to $1.5 billion, once shortlisted in the top ten in film history.
Even if "Furious 8" fell back, it also earned $1.237 billion, only losing to Disney's fantasy song and dance film "Beauty and the Beast" in the global annual box office rankings.
But who would have thought that this would be the final glory of the "Furious series".
After Paul Walker's death, Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, and Jason Statham, as the three leading actors in the series, were all a big family, but rumors of disagreement appeared repeatedly.
In some industry media reports, this rumor has been portrayed with great sound. For example, the three are action superstars and have signed a contract with Universal and can fight back and forth, but the number of punches must be consistent, and the final end must be a tie, and there can be no obvious victory or defeat.
Similar agreements are common in the film industry, such as in "Ip Man 3", in which kung fu superstar Donnie Yen and boxing king Tyson ended the situation in a draw after 800 rounds of fierce fighting.
In 2019, the boots officially landed.
Dwayne Johnson left and set up a separate portal with Jason Statham, and they co-served as producers and starring roles, directing "Fast and Furious: Special Ops".
The cost of 200 million US dollars, in exchange for 771 million US dollars at the box office, although it is not comparable to "Fast 7&8", but with the subsequent streaming revenue, it will not be a loss. Even, we can feel that Dwayne Johnson's laughter is somewhat of a drop in the well.
Because in 2021, "Fast 9", which Vin Diesel served as producer and starred in, was released.
The film not only has a gimmick directed by Justin Lin, the hero director of the series of movies, but also more than one month ahead of North America in terms of schedule.
Vin Diesel said in a related interview that "Chinese audiences have also become part of our family", so he asked Universal to let "Fast and Furious 9" be released in China first, which is a benefit for the family. 、
But unfortunately, the family bought it, but not completely.
Due to a series of bugs such as completely ignoring the laws of physics, unable to press Newton's coffin board, letting cars fly into space on rockets, and the protagonist group will not die no matter how they fight, the film finally won only 1.392 billion box office in the mainland.
It is more than 1 billion lower than "Fast 7&8", and the Douban score is also unprecedentedly low, only 5.1.
△ The picture is from Douban
This is still the case in the mainland, the world's largest box office, not to mention the North American audience, which has long been somewhat tired of the series. The Rotten Tomatoes freshness index is 59%, the IMDb score is 5.2, and the box office is $173 million, the worst in recent years.
△ The picture is from the official website of Rotten Tomatoes
And the obvious fact is that although the box office of "Furious 9" is not as good as "Quick: Special Ops", the cost is much higher.
After this battle, Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson can be regarded as realized: if they work together, they will both be injured. Because the "Quick" series is their most outstanding achievement.
Vin Diesel's "The Last Wizard Hunter" in 2016 had a global box office of $146 million, 2017's "Extreme Agent" had a global box office of $348 million, and by 2020's "Blood Warrior", it was only less than $50 million.
In fact, when he starred in films other than the "Quick" series, the box office performance was not all so bad. For example, "Guardians of the Galaxy" has $775 million, "Guardians of the Galaxy 2" has $864 million, and "Guardians of the Galaxy 3" is being screened around the world for $676 million.
But obviously, the box office appeal of the series of movies comes from the screenwriter and director James Gunn, and the brand effect that Marvel movies have shaped around the world for more than ten years, and Vin Diesel's Groot has contributed very little.
A series of action blockbusters starring Dwayne Johnson such as "Black Adam", "Ferris Rescue" and "Berserk Behemoth" have only a box office performance of 300 million or 400 million US dollars, and only when climbing the IP dividend of "Jumanji" can it highlight the ranking of the name "global action superstar" and win more than 800 million US dollars at the global box office.
△ "Black Adam" global box office picture from Maoyan Professional Edition
Before the release of "Furious 10", Vin Diesel publicly shouted Dwayne Johnson on social platforms, saying that in order to show the best "Furious 10", you must return, and this family cannot do without you.
But at the same time, another news spread on the Internet, that Dwayne Johnson privately approached Vin Diesel first, saying "Sorry, now I know my place in the family."
Regardless of the truth, at least we see the fact that Dwayne Johnson guest starred in "Fast 10".
But when a series of movies that flaunt family culture has a scandal of uneven sharing of the spoils, families around the world have obviously understood that you treat them as family, they are treating you as a kaizi, and everyone just has fun.
△ The picture is from Douban
The mouth is full of feelings, the heart is full of business, and it will not change anywhere.
While the box office of "Furious 10" is not satisfactory, word of mouth is not outstanding in this series, perhaps as the film's villain Dante said, Donald's problem is that "you have too many families".
epilogue
Based on previous interviews with Vin Diesel, we know that "Furious 10" is not the final chapter of the series, and that there will be "Furious 11" after that, and there will most likely be "Furious 12".
Because, "it is a tradition for any parting story to shoot three acts."
If the production of Furious 11 and Furious 12 takes two years each, the real final chapter of the series will not wait until 2027.
But with the rapid shift of the audience's attention today, how many families will buy it in the "Quick" series by then?
Perhaps, the gluttonous snake of the "Fast Furious" series is about to bite its own tail completely.