Monday Morning Quarterback Part I
By BOP Staff
April 14, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Edwin Davies: To me, it seems to be a mixture of paying off a lot of long-running trends and expert handling of something no one could have expected. Despite the blip of Tokyo Drift, which seems to be as much a victim of the awfulness of 2 Fast 2 Furious as anything else, the Fast and Furious series has always been pretty popular, so it's not surprising that it continues to be popular now. So that's the first trend. The second, and the one that is probably key to this result, is that the series has not only remained popular, but it has gotten better, or at least been more accepted, since it exploded with Fast Five. The last two films in the series were hugely popular, got great reviews (especially considering the kind of films they are) and built up tremendous goodwill as a result. To my mind, Furious 7 was always going to be a big hit because Universal did such a good job of handling the previous films.
The unexpected thing was, as we all know, Paul Walker's death. No one could have anticipated that happening when it did, and it could have ended the franchise (there was a lot of talk at the time of Universal scrapping Furious 7 entirely and taking an insurance payout to cover their losses), or at least sent it into a period of prolonged dormancy while everyone tried to figure out what to do next. Universal handled the whole situation very well. They shut production down while people tried to come up with a solution, and they allowed James Wan and his crew to come up with a story that would honor Walker's memory without seeming crass and exploitative. By all accounts, they seemed to do just that, and I think the goodwill towards Walker from the fans, combined with the momentum the series had developed up to this point, was what took the series over the top this time around.
Felix Quinonez: I think the easy answer is Paul Walker's death. It's hard to deny that this tragic loss has raised awareness in the franchise and that it lured a lot of viewers who wanted to see his last appearance in the franchise that brought him stardom. But I believe it would be a bit reductive to claim that is the only thing that's happened.
Ever since the fourth installment the series has seen its popularity grow. And as we all know, how audiences feel about a movie impacts their excitement for the follow up. And as I've stated, the last three entries have each become more popular than the last and it makes sense that this one would be met with more excitement. Add in the fact that it has great reviews and it shouldn't be surprising that it would keep this upward trend going.
Ryan Kyle: I couldn't reiterate what Edwin said better. This series hasn't hit its ceiling even seven installments in. The grosses just keep getting bigger for this much-loved franchise and there was no reason the ever-expanding audience would have dwindled for this seven-quel. Walker's death and the conclusive fact that this will be his character's last spin simply put things into overdrive. Also, as Captain America proved last summer, an April 1st opening can be just as effective as a May 1st debut. Not only is the field clearer, but the film was able to nab an extraordinary number of IMAX screens and keep them for an entire month, which helps bulk up the gross. Already out-grossing every other film in the franchise and with a great hold this weekend, a $400 million finish line total isn't out of the question, which would be astounding.
Kim Hollis: Along with the reasons mentioned above, I think that the Fast and Furious franchise has done a remarkable job of adding interesting talent to the mix as the series has moved along. The Rock was a huge addition previously, and now they’ve added Jason Statham as the villain (and a great one at that). Their demographic appeal is only broadening, and with top-notch reviews, people have a reason to get out and see it in theaters rather than putting it off for video. This one really had the feel of an event.
Kim Hollis: What surprises you the most about the expansion of Furious 7 from previous franchise titles?
Edwin Davies: The biggest surprise to me is the way that the series recovered after Tokyo Drift. That was a case where a third film in a franchise earned less than half of either of its predecessors, had lost both of its main stars (barring a Vin Diesel cameo) and seemed like it had run out of gas. Then, Vin Diesel's outside of the Fast and Furious series career stalled, he came back along with most everyone else, and since then it's been unstoppable. We've seen some series bounce back after slightly underwhelming installments before, but I can't think of a series that fell so low, then came back to such dizzying heights without rebooting the entire thing a la Star Trek.
Ryan Kyle: The Fast and The Furious franchise is a very odd beast. To me, the fourth film is truly the sequel to the first. 2 Fast 2 Furious is pretty much a film that just so happened to star Paul Walker and had fast cars so they slapped the Fast name on it to help grosses after the shock success of the original. Tokyo Drift is a pretty decent spin-off that never really found its audience until it hit secondary markets after the terrible taste 2 Fast 2 Furious left. When the original cast was reunited for the fourth after a prolonged enough lapse, audiences ate it up, feeling as if they finally got the sequel they've been asking for. It was a risk for Universal to greenlight such an expensive project, but the reward has been a multi-hundred million dollar printing press. The franchise had a metamorphic transformation into a heist series. The fifth, sixth, and seventh sequel successfully upped the ante while moving forward the plot, not repeating it. An eighth film is a forgone conclusion, and with the way Furious 7 ended, the franchise seems to be in a good place to continue without Walker in it.
Kim Hollis: I think the explosion for Fast 7 – even with all of the factors we discussed – is shocking. To increase from a $97 million opening for the previous film to almost $150 million – and on Easter weekend, no less – was impossible for me to imagine. I expected some inflation and excitement, but the real number went well beyond what I believed could happen. It is absolutely stunning that this film already has $800 million internationally and is going to be somewhere close to the top of the worldwide box office list by the end of its run.