The Fast franchise is known for its exponential nature. The series that started about driving post-production modified cars with your pals at night and maybe doing light crimes has turned into a full-fledged heists and international espionage movie phenomenon. Good guys (and girls) become bad guys become good guys again, and then everyone sits down for a beer they grip precariously by the bottle neck.
This is a series that’s flown cars across skyscrapers and mountain landscapes and even sent people into space. The only thing that’s certain about what the next movie will contain is that it will be increasingly ridiculous and, probably, very watchable. And now we know it will also cost a huge amount of money to make it happen. Like, on an increasingly large scale of production costs compared to previous films.
According to The Wrap, a number of factors have caused the budget for the penultimate Fast movie in the franchise to skyrocket, to the tune of 70 percent more than Fast 9 cost to make.
The budget for “Fast X,” the 10th film in Universal’s lucrative “Fast & Furious” action franchise, has ballooned to $340 million, according to individuals with knowledge of the production. That’s 70% more than the reported $200 million budget for 2021’s “F9: The Fast Saga,” and easily the most expensive entry in an action series that has generated $6.6 billion worldwide in ticket sales.
The surging price tag, which factors in tax-incentive offsets, can be blamed on numerous budget-busting elements: increased salaries for series star Vin Diesel and the rest of the franchise’s ensemble cast, general increases in production costs caused by global inflation and charges for pandemic testing requirements mandated by COVID-19 safety protocols.
As the report indicates, the series has made billions in ticket sales through its nine-movie run thus far. So it’s likely that everyone involved will get their money’s worth regardless of the film’s quality. But it certainly sets a high bar for profitability in an era where getting people to the movies has become more difficult. Perhaps part of Diesel’s salary includes some trailers imploring people to experience the majesty of the silver screen because they’ll certainly need butts in seats to afford a final Fast movie to finish the saga.
[via The Wrap]