The franchise marks one of Hollywood's rarities: A series that spawns a half-dozen films and makes more money the longer it plays.

LOS ANGELES — One would never know it from the Memorial Day weekend box-office results, but at one point the Fast/Furious franchise was speeding toward a dead end.
The series got off to a blistering start with 2001'sThe Fast and the Furious but sputtered with 2003's 2 Fast 2 Furious, earning the scorn of critics and just $127 million, well below the original's $145 million. There was talk of sending the third film, Tokyo Drift, straight to home video in 2006.
Hoping to buoy ticket sales, Universal Pictures approached the star of the first movie, Vin Diesel, with an unusual request: return to a franchise he left after the first film. Diesel, who says he disliked the script to 2 Fast 2 Furious, was reluctant until he spoke with director Justin Lin.
"He said he was going to return to the theme of outsiders" with Drift, Diesel recalls. "That was always at the heart of the original story, so I said yes."
While Drift would become the series' poorest performer at $62 million, Diesel's uncredited cameo at the finale had fans buzzing. And, ultimately, dropping cash.

The 2009 follow-up, Fast & Furious, would do $155 million, and Fast Five followed with $210 million in 2011. Then, this weekend, Fast & Furious 6 opened to $120 million, the fourth-highest debut in history for a Memorial Day weekend movie.
Even stars are puzzled by the franchise's midstream turnaround, a rarity among franchises that churn out a half-dozen movies.
"I still can't believe what's happened," says star Jordana Brewster. "But it seemed like once we started focusing on family, we got even bigger."

Indeed, F&F 6 — whose tagline is "You don't turn your back on family even when they turn their backs on you'' — not only lapped the U.S. competition this weekend, it was the No. 1 movie in 59 international markets. And with a sequel slated for July 11, 2014, the series shows no sign of losing its muscle.
"It's easy to downplay movies like Fast and Furious," says Lin, who has helmed every film since Drift. "But that's not fair, to say it's just fast cars and hot people. If it were that easy, every studio would do it. I think we hit upon a culture."
The multi-ethnic cast "broke the stereotypes people were used to seeing in the movies," says star Michelle Rodriguez. "These weren't a bunch of Hispanic and Asian kids selling drugs or being pimps. We were just trying to show a diverse community, not sell it overseas."
But that's what happened. "I'll admit, I was wrong about how much people connected," says star Paul Walker.
Walker says that when Universal Pictures approached him about returning for the fourth film in 2009, "I asked, 'Do people still care about this?' I'll never ask that again."
Today, Diesel says, "We don't look at doing just the next film. We look two or three movies down the road and make sure the family element is consistent. That's what gives the story its emotional integrity. That's what keeps us consistent with the story, with the fans. That doesn't happen a lot in Hollywood."
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