A decade after the release of the first movie, the Fast and Furious franchise remains a popular one. With F9 set for release soon, the franchise is clearly still going strong. Each sequel tells a different story but with the same underlying message and increasingly impossible car stunts that no one should ever try at home.
As the franchise added more sequels and famous actors and actresses, it gained international recognition and great financial success. Numbers don't lie and the impressive box-office revenue for each movie in the franchise is evidence of this success and popularity, with some movies performing much better than others.
The Fast And The Furious (2001) - $61.95 million
Released in 2001, the first movie captured the attention of many with the high-speed street races and the storylines centered on family. The Fast and the Furious introduced the world to Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker), and a couple of others who are now the franchise's main characters.
The audience immediately fell in love with the crew of racers and their principle of living their lives a quarter-mile at a time. Its international box office performance was much lower than the rest of the core movies at $61.95 million and even lower than the domestic box office revenue of $144.51 million. It's possible this was because it was the first one and relatively unknown at the time.
The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) - $95.18 million
The 2006 film is the 3rd installment in the franchise. While it features heart-pounding action and fast cars like the rest, this film doesn't have most of the main characters from the other films in the franchise, except for Han (Sung Kang). That partly explains its why it had such a lower revenue ($95.18 million) as compared to the rest of the sequels, but it still performed better than it did domestically, where it earned $62.62 million at the box office.
It follows a high school student named Sean Boswell, recently introduced to the world of drift racing. He becomes friends with Han after destroying the car loaned to him for a race and working for him to pay off his debt. For the most part, the movie basically stands on its own but is actually set at a time ahead of Furious 6 and partly during Furious 7.
2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) - $109.29 million
Following the relative box office success of the first film, 2 Fast 2 Furious was released to continue the story from the first installment. The adrenalin-packed tale focused on Brian working with the authorities to bring down a drug lord in exchange for having his criminal record cleared—a common theme across the franchise.
The sequel also introduced other characters, who later became a part of the main crew, such as Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges). 2 Fast 2 Furious performed better than its prequel, based on international box office revenue, raking in $109.29 million and $127.12 million domestically.
Fast And Furious (2009) - $204.28 million
Also known as Fast and Furious 4, this installment brings Brian and Dominic back together as Dominic seeks to avenge Letty's (Michelle Rodriguez) death while Brian is hunting down a drug lord. Apart from the main characters introduced in recent installments, the movie also features Gisele (Gal Gadot), who later also becomes an important member of the team.
After evading capture for so long, Dom finally decides to stop running and is sentenced to 25 years in prison. Brian quits the FBI and the movie ends with him, Mia (Jordana Brewster), and a couple of other friends driving to intercept the prison bus carrying the older Toretto. Although Fast and Furious received negative reviews, it earned $204.28 million internationally and $155.06 million at the domestic box office.
Fast Five (2011) - $420.13 million
As the franchise gained popularity with each subsequent installment, the 5th movie (alternatively known as Fast and Furious 5: Rio Heist) earned an impressive $420.13 million overseas— almost double its domestic box office revenue ($210.03 million).
Picking up where the 4th movie left off, the crew frees Dom from the prison bus and they go in hiding. Unlike the previous movies, this one transitioned the franchise from street racing to heists, with more action scenes and fights. The film added another famous actor to its cast, with Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) making it even more appealing to a wider audience.
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019) - $586.42 million
Following the popularity of the franchise and of the characters Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), introduced in The Fate Of The Furious, the spinoff popularly known as Hobbs & Shaw was released. The movie focused on the titular characters as they formed an unlikely alliance to save the world.
The enemies to potential allies storyline gave it a captivating edge, leading to a high international box office revenue of $586.42 million (and earning $173.96 million domestically). It also continued the franchise's new trend of bigger storylines that go beyond street racing.
Fast and Furious 6 (2013) - $550.62 million
The 6th movie featured the entire main cast working with Luke Hobbs to take down Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) and his mercenary organization, in return for amnesty from their many crimes. The street racing themes from previous movies were replaced by spy and adventure themes, plus even faster cars, cementing the franchise's new direction first introduced in the 5th movie.
The reviews for the movie were generally positive, thanks to the new storytelling formula and the ever-growing cast of impressive actors and actresses. With an international box office revenue of $550.62 million and earning $238.68 million domestically, it became one of the best performing movies of the franchise.
The Fate Of The Furious (2017) - $1.01 billion
After 7 movies with a similar formula of Dominic and the crew against law enforcement or the villain of the movie, the 8th installment faced the challenge of keeping things interesting for the audience. In Furious 8, the team goes up against their toughest opponent yet—their leader, Dominic.
The plot twist paid off as The Fate of The Furious raked in $1.01 billion internationally (higher than all the other movies in the franchise, except its prequel, Furious 7), and $225.76 million domestically. In addition to the cast carried over from the previous movies, the 8th installment added a new villain, Cipher (Charlize Theron).
Furious 7 (2015) - $1.16 billion
While Furious 7 had the same action sequences as the other films in the franchise, it owes its popularity and financial success to the emotional aspect tied to it. The tragic death of Paul Walker before filming was complete and the emotional tribute paid to him in the movie led to it becoming the most popular and memorable installment of the franchise so far.
Its international box office revenue of over $1 billion and domestic box office revenue of $353.01 million is evidence of this. Despite the release of the sequel, The Fate of The Furious, the 7th movie holds its position as the best performing of the franchise overseas.