The Fast and Furious films are a fascinating franchise in Hollywood history. It began as a simple flick about good-looking street racers, according to critics, and has since evolved into a multi-billion-dollar international blockbuster. The latest installment of the franchise, “F9: The Fast Saga” was released in the U.S. on June 25. It has already made more than $592 million at the worldwide box office.

Over the two decades since the first movie came out, six directors have directed the nine franchise films, and the cast has also changed and expanded. Plot-wise, each film feels independent, yet somehow part of the same organization.

To rank all of the Fast and Furious movies, from worst to best, 24/7 Tempo developed an index based on measures from the Internet Movie Database and Rotten Tomatoes. The index is a composite of the movies’ IMDb rating, Rotten Tomatoes audience score, and Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score. All ratings were weighted equally. Supplemental data on domestic box office and production budgets by movie came from the industry data site The Numbers. 

There have been nine movies released in the franchise, starting with the original — “The Fast and the Furious” — in 2001. The series, which focuses largely on street racing, branched out in 2019 with the spin-off “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.”

Seven of the movies star Vin Diesel — eight including his cameo at the end of the third installment of the franchise. Six of the movies also star Paul Walker, who died in a car crash in 2013.

As is the case with many franchises with more than three movies, the plot timeline does not correspond to the order in which the individual films were released. After the first two, the chronological order is all mixed up.

The Fast and Furious series did not start very well, as far as critics were concerned, but, with time, scripts and acting performances seemed to have improved, winning over most critics. These are the best movie sequels of all time.

Click here to see all the Fast & Furious movies ranked from worst to best