Why "Fast and Furious" Topped the Box Office

I have this new theory/philosophy about movies. There are so many movies out there these days, and they are SO expensive to go to, that it is hard to justify spending your hard-earned dollars on innocuous fare that you may or may not like. And with the economy the way it is, you think twice about spending your $12 to go see an "artsy" movie, or a movie that all the critics love, because when you go see, you wonder why you listened to the critics in the first place because the movie ends up not living up to its expectations. There is just a lot of unpredictability in these kind of movies.

Then a movie like Fast & Furious comes along. The ONLY thing that is different about this movie is that they have dropped the "The" from the first one. Everything else is the same - same stars, same plot, same cars, guaranteed ridiculous action sequences, and guaranteed really bad dialogue. You cannot have a more predictable kind of movie. And that is EXACTLY why so many people went to go see it! If I could have found someone to go with me, I would have gone to see it as well, because a movie like this is just fun and dumb! You don't have to think about the plot, you don't have to wonder what one character is thinking, there is no nuanced acting - it is all about bad acting and awesome fast cars. And who doesn't love that? I like knowing what kind of product I'm getting for my money, and I would have considered it well spent if it would have guaranteed me an hour and half of laughter and cool car chase scenes.

What do you think? Am I off base here? Do people like to spend their dollars on unpredictable movie plots and characters, despite basically seeing the movie in its entirety in previews? Or do people enjoy more light-hearted fare in which there is no thinking involved - just fast cars and lots of laughs at really awesomely bad acting and plot?