02/19/2013
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Jerry Seinfeld (light blue shirt, sans toupee) has really been working on his triceps and tan |
From The New York Times:
âFast & Furiousâ Stresses Social Side of FandomBy BROOKS BARNES
LOS ANGELES â Despite selling $1.8 billion in tickets, Universalâs âFast & Furiousâ car-racing series is Hollywoodâs equivalent of a second-class citizen.
It does not dazzle with computerized special effects like âTransformersâ or feature rising young stars like âThe Hunger Games.â It lacks the cultural cachet of âHarry Potter.â
âWe feel like underdogs most of the time,â said Vin Diesel, who leads the âFast & Furiousâ cast.
What âFast & Furiousâ does have â and it has gone largely unnoticed â is an astounding online following. Its Facebook page has 24.9 million âlikes,â more than any active film series except âAvatar.â Mr. Diesel has 39 million Facebook fans; among actors, only Will Smith has more.
That kind of passion is making the next installment, âFast & Furious 6,â one of the most anticipated movies of the summer. After an online promotional stunt coordinated by the studio to coincide with a Super Bowl ad, âFast & Furious 6â is setting up one of the biggest box-office races of the year: Mr. Diesel and crew against âThe Hangover Part III.â
But without Chris Dorner around to stand in-line to see "The Hangover Part III," itâs just not going to be the same.
âWe measured the various ways audiences talked about these films online, and âFast 6â blew everything else away,â said Ben Carlson, Fizziologyâs president.
So, Brooks Barnes, NYT reporter, who are these people who like "Fast & Furious" movies? Enquiring minds want to know! I realize that you donât, personally, know any of them, but, surely, living as we do in the Age of Big Data, there must be information available to answer basic questions like: what are, say, their demographics?
Apparently not. As far as I can tell from reading this article, "Fast & Furious" films are liked by people who like films entitled "Fast & Furious."