Fast

It was actually a pretty solid weekend at the box office for movies that weren’t brand new. If your movie was playing in its second, third, or even fourth week, you were fine. If your movie was a new release, you were in for a rough couple of days. While the The Martian, Goosebumps, and more showcased impressive legs, a huge batch of other movies faltered this weekend. At least five major releases fell flat on their faces.

The Fast and Furious franchise wouldn’t be where it is now without Vin Diesel. The films didn’t even kick into high gear until Diesel returned for 2009’s Fast and Furious, and the box-office numbers have been climbing astronomically since then. To say Universal owes Vin Diesel a gigantic debt of gratitude is an understatement, but exactly how much do they owe him? Would they actually let Diesel, who has little experience directing a movie let alone directing a movie on the scale of a Fast and Furious film, behind the camera of Fast and Furious 8? According to a new report, this may be what Vin Diesel wants and Universal is terrified.

Fast and Furious 7 just made Universal over $1.5 billion and when you make people that much money, you can pretty much do whatever you want for your next project. Vin Diesel, the star of and producer of the Fast franchise, has that kind of clout now and has decided to use that clout to make…xXx 3?

The early estimates for the opening weekend gross of Furious 7 are all over the place and we probably won’t have a definitive number until tomorrow, when the dust finally settles and everyone gets a chance to breathe. However, this one thing we know for sure: the seventh film in the Fast and Furious series didn’t just shatter in-franchise records, it shattered records for any April release.

Increasingly the Fast and Furious franchise has felt like a superhero franchise. A group of heroes with seemingly infinite strength and abilities taking on the bad guys and becoming a family in the process. It's like Avengers meets the Fantastic Four, but with a lot of cars. With the movies already up to Part 7 and Paul Walker sadly gone, the series can't go on forever. So, how do they continue the brand? Just like the superheroes do: with spinoffs.

It was good news when Roberto Orci left the director’s chair on Star Trek 3. It was really good news when Fast and Furious franchise director Justin Lin took over. And it was even better news when it was announced that Simon Pegg would take over scripting duties, officially getting us excited for the third installment in the franchise after the somewhat disappointing Star Trek Into Darkness. And now Pegg is getting our hopes up even more, promising that the upcoming sequel is inspired by the original Star Trek television series.

Vin Diesel gets emotional during speech paying tribute to Paul Walker at Furious 7 screening.

Few would argue that the turning point in the 'Fast and Furious' films is when Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson joined the cast in 'Fast Five' as federal agent Luke Hobbs. He brought a breath of fresh air to the 14-year-old franchise, but if things had gone originally as planned, he wouldn't even have been in the movie. 'Fast' producers originally wanted Tommy Lee Jones to star in the film until star Vin Diesel came to them with The Rock. And where did he get that idea? One of his Facebook fans suggested it to him. That's just one of the surprising 'Fast and Furious' facts in the latest installment of You Think You Know Movies!