‘Furious’ franchise races on

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

Neither Vin Diesel nor producer Neal Moritz wanted a sequel to “The Fast and the Furious.” The 2001 film about a group of East Los Angeles street racers and the FBI agent (Paul Walker) who infiltrates their ring just wasn’t “that kind of film,” according to Moritz.

Now, 14 years, seven movies, a few restarts and $2.4 billion later, Universal’s homegrown “Fast & Furious” franchise has become one of the jewels of the studio.

And cinema’s most improbable series keeps getting bigger and faster, fueled by growing international interest. With its diverse cast, keen self-awareness, postcard locales and crazy stunts, “Fast & Furious” has become the quintessential global franchise.

And even larger sums of international currency lie ahead: “Furious 7,” which opens in theaters Friday, is tracking to be the most successful installment yet, with the studio planning to make at least three more movies.

The first film’s $207 million worldwide gross made a sequel inevitable, even without Diesel, who still thought it was a mistake and was willing to walk away from “2 Fast 2 Furious” and $20-some million to prove it.

“I felt like the surest way to rule yourself out of being a classic was to sequel-ize,” said Diesel.

Then, when director Justin Lin and screenwriter Chris Morgan stepped in for the third film, “Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift,” it seemed like a franchise killer. But in convincing Diesel to come back for a small cameo, the team concocted a crazy plan for three more films that would create an interconnected saga out of the disparate story lines.

The fourth, simply titled “Fast & Furious,” was the turning point, reuniting the originals, including Diesel and Walker, with key members of “Tokyo Drift.” Lin, Morgan, Moritz and Diesel (along with his millions of social media fans) followed that with perhaps the best film in the series, “Fast Five,” which added Dwayne Johnson to the cast and earned $630 million worldwide. “Fast & Furious 6” did even better, grossing a staggering $789 million.

“These films pushed the boundaries of action-movie motifs and created a world unto itself,” said Paul Dergarabedian of box office firm Rentrak.