The cast, including Vin Diesel, Tyrese and Ludacris, filming “Fast & Furious 7.”
Not only did the latest installment in the Fast & Furious have a record-breaking weekend at the box office taking in $143.6 million domestically and a whopping $249.4 million internationally, but the story behind the numbers is even more interesting.
A majority of people who went to see the Furious 7 in the U.S. were people of color. “According to Universal, 75 percent of the audience in North America was non-Caucasian, generally in line with previous installments,” reports The Hollywood Reporter . It seems, Hispanics, who are the most frequent moviegoers in America, comprised a majority of ticket buyers (37 percent), followed by Caucasians (25 percent), African-Americans (24 percent), Asians (10 percent), and other (4 percent).
“The importance of diversity of the ensemble cast in the Fast and Furious franchise has been an integral part of the success of the brand,” said Rentrak box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “There is literally someone within the cast that is relatable on some level to nearly every moviegoer around the world, and this has paid big dividends at the box office and also in terms of how casting decisions will be made in the future for these types of large-scale action epics.”
And, most experts don’t know of another movie franchise that attracts such an ethnically diverse audience. Perhaps it is the diverse casting that draws in the diverse crowd.
Furious 7‘s cast includes Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Jason Statham, Dwayne Johnson and, the late Paul Walker along with Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges, martial artist Tony Jaa, and Djimon Hounsou.
“Someone that I admire quite a lot recently said this is a franchise that really looks like America, and there are characters that everyone can relate to. I think that’s a big plus,” said Universal president of domestic distribution Nicholas Carpou.
