F9 opened at a fresh 67% on Rotten Tomatoes and even rose over 70% during its international run, but dropped to "rotten" after it opened in the United States, alternating between "fresh" and "rotten" at the 59%-60% threshold, making it the lowest score since the franchise was reinvented with Fast Five. It's not uncommon for Rotten Tomatoes scores to swing wildly after fresh batches of reviews come in, such as Wonder Woman 1984 falling to rotten after it opened, despite a strong score following pre-screenings, but it isn't typical for the Fast and Furious franchise.
While the Fast and the Furious franchise always had a strong fanbase and performed fairly well at the box office, it didn't start winning over critics or making massive splashes at the box office until it pivoted into the sort of super-spy franchise it is now. While the first four movies were all rated "rotten" by Rotten Tomatoes, things turned around in a hurry after that. Fast Five was "certified fresh" at 77%, Fast and Furious 6 was "fresh" at 70%, Furious 7 was "certified fresh" at 82%, Fate of the Furious was "fresh" at 67%, and even the Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw spin-off was "fresh" at 67%. The new movie doesn't just stand out with the lowest score, but the fact F9 saw such a swing from "fresh" to "rotten" is also unique for the franchise, although the reason why it fell makes a lot of sense.
The Fast and the Furious franchise's biggest gain in popularity started when the international box office started eclipsing the domestic box office with The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift when 60% of its almost $160 total box office came from international markets. That number has only grown, with Fate of the Furious taking almost 82% of its global box office from international markets. F9 currently stands at almost 75% international grosses, although with the domestic box office still recovering after the pandemic, that will skew the number.
Reviews and box office don't always directly correlate, but the growing split between the domestic box office and the international box office in the Fast and Furious franchise's is indicative of its greater popularity overseas. With F9 opening in China a month before it hit screens in the United States, the first batch of reviews were from a region where the franchise is more popular, so when it hit the United States, there was a massive influx of new reviews, going up from just 23 reviews in Rotten Tomatoes on May 30th to almost 200 after the domestic release.
The number of reviews submitted to Rotten Tomatoes for F9 is another major step down. The number of reviews submitted to Rotten Tomatoes for each Fast and Furious movie has gone up movie over movie starting with Fast and Furious, which saw 177 reviews submitted, almost 40 more than The Fast and the Furious: Toyko Drift, with Hobbs & Shaw sing 343 submitted. At this point, F9 only has 262, which is less than Furious 7. The number of reviews submitted doesn't inherently change the score, but the more there are, the less each new review will swing the total score. F9 shouldn't expect many more reviews at this point, though, but the fact that it sits right on the edge of "fresh" and "rotten" on the Tomatometer means it could still alternate ratings a few more times.
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