Paul Dergarabedian: 'Fast Five' will win box office race, fueled by internet buzz
(Hollywood.com / What's Trending) The notion of yet a fifth installment of the massively successful "Fast and Furious" franchise was initially met with skepticism, however the movie has become something of a surprise and the subject of much positive internet buzz.
"Fast Five" is a brilliantly directed by Justin Lin and is an uber-fun rollercoaster ride of a movie that fires on all cylinders and delivers the goods in one great looking package. Adding to excitement is the reuniting of the original cast plus the addition of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and the expected audience fervor should result in a $70 million plus opening this weekend.
Critics on the web have been somewhat divided on the film with some suspending disbelief sufficiently to enjoy the film and just go along for the ride while others decry the movie's evident lack of Academy Award winning performances.
The film is currently scoring 77 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes among professional critics and online bloggers. Michael A. Smith of Nolan's Pop Culture Review said, "The film gets much better in its second half when it becomes an 'Ocean's
Eleven' type adventure featuring many faces that will instantly be
familiar to 'Fast/Furious' fans," while Nick Nunziata of CHUD remarked, "It's the PG-13 Bad Boys 2. Coming from me that's a big compliment."
Regardless, the various social networking platforms should be all atwitter over this one once it has hit the IMAX and regular screens across the country on Friday. One thing is certain, with all the great looking eye candy, car chases, fist fights, bikinis and a gorgeous Rio de Janeiro backdrop, summer arrives early this weekend with "Fast Five."
It may also help the film that the stars have a large presence in the social world. Vin Diesel's Facebook page has 22,657,466 likes, and although The Rock is far behind, he isn't doing so shabby with 2,882,967 likes.Other films debuting this weekend include the counter-programmed PG-rated "Prom" and "Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil" while and expected to continue its solid box office run that has it perch atop the worldwide box office chart is the animated "Rio."
Paul Dergarabedian, president of the Box-office Division of Hollywood.com
(which acquired Paul's company Media by Numbers in late 2008) is the
entertainment industry's foremost expert in box-office tracking and
movie industry trend analysis. He's also a weekly columnist for What's Trending, taking the buzz online and telling you how that's going to affect the weekend box office. Learn more about him here.