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26 Jul, 2009 By: Kyra Kudick

“Muscle beats import every time. Every time.”

The phrase is used to goad Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) in the latest Fast & Furious film, but the same could be said about the films themselves.

Fast & Furious, featuring the original cast and an abundance of American muscle cars, raked in $155 million at the domestic box office this year, almost two-and-a-half times the domestic gross of its predecessor, Tokyo Drift.

“[The audience’s reception] is more than what I could’ve ever imagined,” says Neal H. Moritz, co-producer of all four films in the franchise. “I mean we had the biggest April opening ever. But most importantly to me is … they really loved the movie.”

The fourth film is a continuation of the storyline of The Fast and the Furious. Fugitive ex-con Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) returns to Los Angeles to avenge the death of his love (Michelle Rodriguez), only to discover he and his old nemesis, now an FBI agent, Brian O’Conner, share the same enemy.

“It was a reunion, and we are all like family,” Moritz says. “So it was fun. We knew when we announced the movie as the fourth one that people would be cynical about it, and we knew we had a lot to prove. Everyone was out there working really hard to deliver.”

And deliver they did. The opening sequence with Dom’s new crew attempting to heist a fuel truck kept audiences at the edge of their seats.

“It was a very difficult and expensive sequence,” Moritz says. “But the first time we screened the movie for an audience they just went nuts when they saw it, so it was worth the time and money.”

Moritz says the success of the fourth film has made them consider making a fifth.

“What we learned more than anything is that the audience loves these characters,” Moritz says. “They want to know what happens to them. So we’re talking about it. We don’t want to just try and cash in — we want to do something that is organic to the characters.”

Fast & Furious will be available July 28 on DVD ($29.98; two-disc special edition $34.98) and Blu-ray ($39.98) from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The four-disc Fast & Furious 4-Movie Collection will be available the same day on DVD for $69.98.

Cars used in Fast & Furious:
(1) 1972 Ford Torino;
(2) 1987 Buick Grand National;
(3) 1970 Dodge Charger;
(4) 2009 Subaru WRX STI;
(5) Nissan Skyline GT-S modified to look like a GT-R;
(6 & 7) 1970 Chevelle SS Coupe.