{"id":34769,"date":"2025-08-31T14:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T14:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/34769\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T14:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T14:32:09","slug":"universal-had-no-faith-in-the-og-fast-furious-until-it-scored-100-100-and-99-in-pre-screenings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/34769\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal Had No Faith in the OG \u2018Fast & Furious\u2019 Until It Scored 100, 100, And 99 In Pre-Screenings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before it was a household name, the original The Fast and the Furious was a B-movie not many would peg as the start of the multibillion-dollar dynasty it is today. With no real big names, niche subject matter, and some, uh, questionable writing, the 2001 action-drama apparently did not inspire faith<\/a> within Universal Studios. Until, of course, they showed it to some actual car people.<\/p>\n

In an Instagram video recounting several interesting anecdotes about the first FF movie\u2019s production, composer BT said the studio saw a rough cut and concluded, \u201cThis is terrible, no one\u2019s gonna go watch this.\u201d It changed its tune, however, after three pre-screenings (notably filled with car enthusiasts) in which the movie\u2014then tentatively titled Redline\u2014screened 100, 100, and 99.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe studio actually did not believe that the numbers weren\u2019t played around with,\u201d said BT. \u201cSo they made us re-screen the film. We screened it three times. All three times, it scored 100, 100, and 99, and they were like, \u2018Wait a minute, maybe this movie doesn\u2019t suck as bad as we thought.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Nine sequels and a Rock-led spinoff later, we all know how misguided that attitude was, but even if you isolate just that first movie, it still did pretty well. According to Box Office Mojo<\/a>, The Fast and the Furious made $207 million against a budget of $38 million. Conventional Hollywood wisdom says a movie has to make 2 to 2.5 times its production budget to break even after accounting for distribution and marketing costs.<\/p>\n

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BT\u2014not to be confused with Brian Tyler, who did help out with one track on this first movie but went on to score most of the Fast sequels\u2014also says he used car parts as percussion instruments when putting together the background music for the original.<\/p>\n

Good luck rewatching this scene ever again without imagining some studio drummer just going ham on a set of smashed up TE37s.<\/p>\n

[Ed note:\u00a0<\/strong>As the resident F&TF defender around here<\/a>, I have to once again remind everyone that many of these movies are actually good! There\u2019s definitely a range (Tokyo Drift and the original at the top, FF9 on the Rocket Fiero near the bottom), but if I have to sit through the 19th Avengers movie, you can enjoy sweet, sweet drifts and Ludacris quips. The original has a ton of memorable lines, some extremely silly car moments, but also it\u2019s a ton of fun! \u2013\u00a0MH]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top screengrab: Universal Studios<\/p>\n

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