Ranker Spotlight:

The Fast & Furious Franchise

Twenty years after the original Fast & Furious movie’s release, Americans are lining up to see the franchise’s ninth installment, F9 — the 10th if you include the 2019 spinoff Hobbes & Shaw. The series shows no signs of stopping, with a 10th addition to the “Fast Saga,” a Hobbs & Shaw sequel, and another spinoff movie reportedly in the works. While the series has its critics, a huge portion of the moviegoing public can’t get enough of the Fast & Furious franchise’s incredible cars, death-defying (and sometimes logic-defying) storylines, and explosive action.

So who are these fans of the “Family”? Just how popular is this franchise, and what else at the theater tends to draw their attention? We’re celebrating the release of F9 by taking a look at how the Fast & Furious franchise ranks on some of our most popular movie lists, as well as the tastes and preferences of the saga’s biggest fans.

How The Fast and the Furious Ranks on Ranker

As a whole, the Fast & Furious franchise is a divisive one. It’s got some coveted spots on highly competitive Ranker lists: it’s #3 on The Greatest Car Movies Ever Made, #16 on The Very Best Movie Franchises, and #18 on The Greatest Action Film Franchises, Ranked (it seems action movie fans are slightly less hot on the movies than the general public is). On the other hand, it also ranks on less prestigious lists, like Movie Franchises You Need To Stop Watching (Fast & Furious is #3), and the somewhat backhanded The Greatest Guilty Pleasure Action Movies (our favorite franchise is #8).

How do all nine of the F&F films rank against one another? As of the writing of this blog, our list of All 9 'Fast & Furious' Movies, Ranked Best To Worst puts the franchise’s fifth installment Fast 5 at the top. While the original 2001 film is in second place, immediately following it are the sixth and seventh episodes in the saga: Fast & Furious 6 and Furious 7. Unlike with many franchises, it seems that fans feel the second half of this series is better than the first. That’s no guarantee F9 will be well-received by the Fast & Furious fanbase, though — at the very bottom of the list is Hobbs & Shaw, the saga’s most recent movie.

What Do Fast & Furious Fans Love?

Tens of thousands of votes have been cast for Fast & Furious movies on some of Ranker’s most popular movie lists. What and who else do those fans vote for? Ranker Insights can tell us more about the likes and dislikes of the franchise’s biggest fans.

Other Movies

As a blockbuster, international franchise, Fast & Furious has a fan base with diverse tastes in film. Those who love the original 2001 film are also 10X more likely to be fans of other Paul Walker movies like Varsity Blues and The Skulls, but they’re also 9X more likely to enjoy ‘90s and early ‘00s comedies like She’s All That, Bringing Down the House, and Vegas Vacation. Fast 5 fanatics are more dyed-in-the-wool action fans, as they’re 9X more likely to love other Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson vehicles like Walking Tall and The Rundown, as well as broadly popular action films (Iron Man), comedies (The Other Guys), and dramas (The Blind Side). Part of the series’ strategy is to appeal to fans of all these genres by mixing big-budget action with humor and compelling storylines — this diverse range of movies indicates the success of that strategy.

TV

With such a large and diverse fan base, the TV preferences of the Fast & Furious family varies depending on the movie you’re looking at. Fans of the original film are 6X more likely to love the Netflix fantasy show The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Those who love both 2 Fast 2 Furious and Fast 5 are 4X more likely to enjoy the long-running CW fantasy drama Supernatural. Furious 7 fans are 4X more likely to be drawn to Friends, while Fast & Furious 6 fans are 3X more likely to prefer Family Guy. One curious commonality between them all: of the eight movies in the Fast & Furious saga, six have fans who are more likely to enjoy the supernatural teen drama The Vampire Diaries than not. Fans of the fifth and seventh films love it the most, as those who love Fast 5 and Furious 7 are both 4X more likely to vote up The Vampire Diaries on Ranker.

Music

As fans of one of the most popular movie franchises ever, the Fast & Furious family is unsurprisingly drawn to “pop”-ular music. Fast & Furious fans are 3X more likely to love Katy Perry, while Fast 5 fanatics are equally likely to love Jennifer Lopez. The musician Furious 7 fans are most likely to love (3X more than the average Ranker voter, to be exact) is Selena Gomez, while, interestingly enough, The Fate of the Furious fans are 6X more likely to appreciate the music of Olivia Newton-John. 

These stories are crafted using Ranker Insights, which takes over one billion votes cast on Ranker.com and converts them into actionable psychographics about pop culture fans across the world. To learn more about how our Ranker Insights can be customized to serve your business needs, visit insights.ranker.com, or email us at insights@ranker.com.

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