Culture news This action film completely relaunched its saga at the cinema with 360 million at the box office: it is free on TF1+
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Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ (to name but a few) have helplessly witnessed the strong arrival of a new player in the ultra-competitive SVOD market in France. The TF1 group launched its new streaming platform at the beginning of 2024, the catalog of which is enriched very regularly. At the end of April, an action film having collected $360 million at the international box office is thrilling subscribers.
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A first cult film
Fast and Furious, the first of its name, is a legendary film that gave birth to a passion for urban motor sports and tuning in an entire generation. This motorized action film starring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker catapulted them to instant stardom while raking in US$207.3 million on a modest budget of US$38 million. Certainly, Fast and Furious is strongly inspired by Point Break, a cult film from 1991 with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, but it knew how to find its way.
A perfect first trilogy
Barely 2 years later released 2 Fast 2 Furious without Vin Diesel, but with Paul Walker. Although this sequel is a disappointment from a critical point of view, it did significantly better at the box office, which validates the putting into production of a new part which, in hindsight, takes on the appearance of a spin-off of the franchise. Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift arrived in cinemas in 2006 and struggled to convince fans who were reluctant to go to the cinema. The absence of Paul Walker AND Vin Diesel from the cast will have had the better of the saga, although the latter faces a cameo at the very end of the feature film directed by Justin Lin.
A new direction for Fast and Furious
3 years after the semi-failure of Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, Vin Diesel, Paul Walker as well as several actors and actresses brought to become members of the “Family” are relaunching the franchise in the cinema with a film soberly named Fast & Furious. This original title sets the tone. This fourth episode is there to give a new direction to the saga, still focused on action but with a more fleshed-out plot that develops from film to film. Fast and Furious 4 hits the box office and is off to a flying start with 360 million US dollars in its pocket compared to 85 million invested (excluding marketing costs). Since then, the franchise has grown significantly with 7 new films including a spin-off while the eighth is currently in development. Fast and Furious is available for free on TF1+ until April 3, 2024 inclusive.
Watch Fast and Furious 4 on TF1+