Fast Five
Cast – Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster
Director – Justin Lin
Writer – Chris Morgan
Genre – Action/Thriller
Distributor – Universal
Production Company – Original Film
Release Date – April 29 2011
About the Film
Fast Five is the fifth installment in the Fast and the Furious series. Dominic and Brian team up once again and find themselves on the wrong side of the law yet again as they try to shift lanes between a ruthless drug lord and a relentless federal agent. Dwayne Johnson joins the cast as agent Hobbs, the persistent lawman who doggedly pursues the road racers.
Comparisons
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RANK
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RELEASE DATE
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|
TITLE
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OPENING WEEKEND
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TOTAL GROSS
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1
|
4/3/09
|
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Fast & Furious
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$70.9M
|
$155.1M
|
|
2
|
6/22/01
|
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The Fast and the Furious
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$40.1M
|
$144.5M
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|
3
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6/6/03
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2 Fast 2 Furious
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$50.5M
|
$127.2M
|
|
4
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6/16/06
|
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The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
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$23.9M
|
$62.5M
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Analysis:
By the time Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the third entry in the popular series, raced out of theatres back in 2006, it seemed like the muscle car franchise had run out of gas. Fast forward three years later to the fourth installment which reunited the stars of the original (Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez) to terrific success and suddenly the Fast and the Furious franchise became the little engine that could.
Two years later, the fifth installment is ready to roll into theatres, staking out the same April weekend that the fourth film launched on. Although the summer movie season doesn’t officially start until the following weekend (May 6th) when Marvel’s Thor arrives, in my mind, Fast Five is the official starting line for the summer box office race.
The fourth film opened with a towering $71 million due to the excitement and buzz generated from the return of Vin Diesel and friends. Now that the cast is firmly back in place, the buzz this time around isn’t quite as deafening. The addition of Dwayne Johnson is a great move but will likely not add much to the box office potential of the film. Nonetheless, Fast Five is going to cruise to a great opening weekend of about $65 million. The film should collect about $132 million by the end of the Popcorn Period*.
*The Popcorn Period represents the total gross of a film after four weekends in theatres.