Summary

• The Fast & Furious series has shifted focus from car racing to action, with Tokyo Drift being the lowest-grossing installment.
• Tokyo Drift's failure prompted the franchise to move away from street racing and towards more traditional action film elements.
• Fast & Furious successfully shifted the franchise's direction away from racing, towards bigger budgets and grander scales.

The Vin Diesel's signature quotes about family. While Vin Diesel's quotes and overall hard-as-nails leader persona have not changed much as the movie franchise has progressed, Fast & Furious has seemingly shifted its focus from thrilling races to sensational action set pieces in recent years.

Given the franchise's worldwide popularity, many factors may have contributed to these changes. Owing to this, one may not be able to pinpoint the precise reason why the Fast & Furious franchise changed its narrative direction. However, the lowest-grossing film in the Fast & Furious series might provide some answers to why the films are now less about racing and more about heists and across-the-globe action.

Tokyo Drift Is Fast & Furious’ Lowest-Grossing Movie

The Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift grossed $158.9 million worldwide

Since it has been around for over two decades, it is not surprising that the Fast & Furious franchise has had a fair share of ups and downs, highs and lows at the box office. Although the franchise is still fairly profitable, its recent installments have offered diminishing returns. However, despite the franchise's dwindling box office numbers, none of its installments have had a box office as low as The Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift. The first movie in the franchise, The Fast & the Furious, was a success after it raked in $207.5 million at the worldwide box office against a budget of $38 million.

Even the second film in the franchise, 2 Fast 2 Furious, proved profitable after it grossed $236.3 million globally on a budget of $76 million. The third installment was expected to continue this trend, with its relatively higher budget of $85 million. However, despite having a bigger budget than its predecessors, Tokyo Drift could not continue the franchise's trend of getting higher returns with each new installment. Eight new Fast & Furious movies have come out since Tokyo Drift's release, and none of them even come close to matching its low box office scores.

Tokyo Drift Is The Street Racing-Focused Movie Many Want Fast & Furious To Be

Tokyo Drift is the most "Fast & Furious" movie in the franchise

Even to this day, theFast & Furiousfranchise is associated with fancy cars and white-knuckling street races. However, one look at the recent movies in the franchise will reveal that its focus has drifted away from what it used to be about. While it still features high-octane car chases and expensive cars, the "racing" element seems missing. Given how street car races in the early installments of the film franchise played a crucial role in drawing audiences to it,Tokyo Driftarguably is amongFast & Furious' better installments because it offers everything from drift competitions to intense underground racing scenes.

Christopher Nolan once said (via Collider) that he has a "soft spot" for Tokyo Drift.

Storytelling has never been the Fast & Furious franchise's strongest suit. However, in some ways, Tokyo Drift also has a more relatable storyline than other films because its narrative primarily revolves around an underdog street racer who beats the bad guy in the film's climax. The recent Fast & Furious movies are far superior when it comes to having an ensemble cast and high production value. However, they often prioritize spectacle over substance, sacrificing the simpler elements that made the first few films successful.

Tokyo Drift’s Box Office Performance Prompted Fast & Furious To Change

Tokyo Drift's failures triggered the franchise to move away from street racing

After Tokyo Drift's inability to top or even match its predecessors' success, the fourth installment in the film franchise, Fast & Furious, marked the return of the original cast. Since Tokyo Drift's underwhelming box office numbers established that the film franchise worked better when it did not primarily focus on underground car racing, 2009's Fast & Furious focused less on those elements and presented itself as a regular action film. Although Fast & Furious did not entirely shed the franchise's roots in car culture, it paved the way for a new narrative direction for the movie series.

Fast & Furious proved that even though Tokyo Drift's grounded storyline and underground street races had their charm, they did not have the blockbuster pull the franchise needed to maintain momentum.

Fast & Furious's formula even worked wonders for the franchise, given how it earned almost twice as much as Tokyo Drift at the global box office despite having the same budget. With this, Fast & Furious proved that even though Tokyo Drift's grounded storyline and underground street races had their charm, they did not have the blockbuster pull the franchise needed to maintain momentum. As a result, Fast & Furious became the blueprint for the franchise, resulting in Fast Five and the subsequent films repeating its formula with bigger budgets and even grander scale.

Fast & Furious Was Never The Same After Fast Five

Fast Five marked the inception of a new era for the franchise

After adopting everything that made 2009's Fast & Furious successful and becoming the first film in the franchise to cross the $500 million box office mark, Fast Five proved that the franchise had to rinse and repeat the 2009 film's winning recipe. Owing to this, with each installment, the Fast & Furious franchise only drifted further away from its core identity, which revolved around racing and car culture. Although recent movies in the Fast & Furious franchise have not been performing as well as expected, it seems like it is too late for the 11th movie to take a U-turn and experiment with a return to its roots.