TO keep a franchise at the top of the box office charts for over 20 years is no mean feat. To do so with the original cast still largely in situ is something of a miracle. When it comes to staying power, there aren’t so many series that can match that of the Fast and Furious.

It’s funny to think now, looking back now to 2001, that Rob Cohen’s original The Fast and the Furious concerned little more than stolen DVDs and a road race. How quaint it must seem. Two decades have transformed the series’ once grungy verve into a shimmering, multi-billion dollar juggernaut, making A-listers of its stars along the way. The action has ramped way past 11 and budgets swollen farther still.

This week, Fast X, the tenth in the series, hits cinemas as one of the most expensive films ever made. Bolstered by a production budget of well over $300m, the film promises vehicular action like fans have never seen before, set against a global backdrop more expansive than most blockbusters can even dream of.

While each new F&F film has tried to best its direct predecessor, the sense that all the stops are being pulled out for Fast X is palpable. The beginning of the end is here and the familia Toretto are going out with a bang. Part two will follow in 2025.

Also this week comes Kelly Fremon Craig’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. This being the hotly anticipated adaptation of Judy Blume’s seminal seventies novel of the same name.

Known for its fiendishly frank relatability, Blume’s book has been celebrated and reviled in equal measure across the fifty years since its publication. It is a tale of teenage anxiety, of bra sizes, hormones and menstruation. It was banned in Harrogate.

Abby Ryder Fortson - Ant-Man’s young Cassie Lang - is a delight as 11-year old Margaret Simon, daughter of Rachel McAdams’ Barbara and granddaughter to Kathy Bates’ Sylvia. It is through Margaret’s wide eyes that the reality of puberty is plated out and through her tightening frame that we feel the cringe. As it turns out, adolescence is no picnic If you can pummel through the exhaust fumes clogging up cinemas this week, a visit to Margaret’s world will reward you with tears of laughter and an ear to ear beam.