Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel
When a crime brings them back to L.A., fugitive ex-con Dom Toretto reignites his feud with agent Brian O'Conner. But, as they are forced to ...
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sexual content, language and drug references
Length: 106 minutes
Released: April 3, 2009 Nationwide
Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, John Ortiz
Director: Justin Lin
Writer: Chris Morgan
HOLLYWOOD — In addition to the roar of car engines and the blast of automatic weapons fire, there’s another sound in “Fast and Furious” that’s been integral to the franchise’s success: Spanish-language dialogue and accents.
The latest installment of the action-thriller series has a distinctly Hispanic feel, including its south-of-the-border location settings (although some actually were shot in California), its soundtrack, several of its characters (including one played by Puerto Rican rapper Tego Calderon) and its plot line (hot-rodding hero Dominic Toretto battles Mexico-based drug runners).
Those elements are no coincidence, and they’re partly responsible for the disproportionately large Hispanic crowds that the current film — and the franchise in general — have drawn, according to Universal Pictures, the movie’s distributor.
Adam Fogelson, Universal’s president of marketing and distribution, said that a limited sampling in five U.S. markets last weekend showed that 46 percent of the “Fast and Furious” audience was Hispanic.
Although that percentage was not necessarily “representative of the national sample,” Fogelson said, “it was again recognition of a huge part of the core fan base of this movie.”
The movie has performed well so far in Latin American territories, bagging the biggest opening of 2009 in Mexico and Central America and accounting for 50 percent of the weekend box office in Mexico and Brazil, according to Universal.
Fogelson said that the Hispanic media marketing budget for “Fast & Furious” was the largest ever for a Universal film. The promotional campaign included running advertisements during a Mexico-U.S. World Cup qualifying match last winter, tapping into Spanish-language Internet social networking sites and dispatching stars Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez to do publicity in key Hispanic markets.
Fogelson said any future installments of the franchise would continue to take care of an audience segment that always has “taken care of the franchise.”
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