Heading into the Memorial Day weekend, many box office watchers thought it would be a close race between Hangover Part III and Fast & Furious 6 as to who would come out on top. In the end, it’s the latter that streaked away, with $120 million in its first four days in US cinemas.
That’s not just the biggest start ever for the franchise, but the biggest opening in the history of Universal Studios, overtaking the $97 million Jurassic Park: The Lost World made back in the 90s. It’s certainly an impressive haul, especially for a franchise that only became a powerhouse with the last few entries.
In the end Hangover Part III slightly faltered with $63 million since its opening last Thursday. While that’s not bad at all for an R-rated comedy, it’s far below expectations, as Part II opened above $100 million in 2011. The film will still make a profit, but it’ll struggle to get close to the $586 million worldwide total of the previous Hangover movie.
The final new entry is the Fox toon Epic, which took $42.6 million. While that was only enough for fourth place (behind a strong second weekend showing for Star Trek Into Darkness), it’s more than many had expected. And with the next few weekends clear of new animated releases, it could continue to do well.
Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the four-day Memorial Weekend.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | Fast & Furious 6 | $120.0 | $120.0 |
| 2 | The Hangover Part III | $51.2 | $63.0 |
| 3 | Star Trek Into Darkness | $47.0 | $155.8 |
| 4 | Epic | $42.6 | $42.6 |
| 5 | Iron Man 3 | $24.3 | $372.4 |
| 6 | The Great Gatsby | $17.0 | $117.7 |
| 7 | Mud | $2.4 | $15.0 |
| 8 | The Croods | $1.6 | $179.6 |
| 9 | 42 | $1.6 | $91.4 |
| 10 | Oblivion | $1.0 | $87.5 |
When the summer comes around, all the big action movies head for cinemas, causing pretty much every other movie to run for cover (largely because there aren’t many cinema screens left). As a result, Star Trek Into Darkness was the only new entrant into the US box office top 10, taking $84 million since its opening last Thursday.
There’s been a fair amount of uncertainty about how well The Great Gatsby would do, with some wondering whether there was room for it in the usually action-heavy summer release schedule. However it’s done far better than many expected, taking $51 million in its first weekend at the US box office.
The money men at Disney/Marvel will be rubbing their hands in glee this morning, as if they were worried about the hundreds of millions they’ve already poured into the post-Avengers movies, Iron Man 3 has resolutely proved audiences are keen to continue watching the superhero adventures.
Michael Bay has proved he can still pull in the punters away from massive robots, as his Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg starrer, Pain And Gain, topped the US box office with $20 million in its first weekend. Although that’s a lot less than Bay’s Transformers movies opened to, that’s only to be expected from an R-rated thriller with a dash of comedy. And as it only cost $26 million to make, it’s likely headed for a healthy profit.
In the last few years it’s felt like Tom Cruise’s ‘king of the A-list’ crown has started to wobble, with audiences only really seeming to want to see him in Mission: Impossible movies. However it appears they don’t mind him in a bit of sci-fi either, as Oblivion has opened to a pretty good $38 million, Cruise’s highest non Mission: Impossible debut since War Of The Worlds (and his fifth highest ever).
It’s rare that two movies are released in the same week in the US and box office watchers seem to have no idea how well either of them will do, or which would end up at the top of the box office (if either). However that was true of 42 and Scary Movie 5, with wildly differing estimates of how well they’d do in their run up to release, with some even suggesting both would end behind The Croods in their first weekend.
While some still think the idea of remaking Evil Dead is sacrilege, US audiences have shown that they’re pretty happy about is, as the film has topped the box office with $26 million in its opening weekend. It’s a pretty good but not astounding start, although reports of a middling response from audiences may mean it’ll drop quickly down the charts.
Many thought that after the first GI Joe film failed to set the box office alight, that would be the last we’d see of it on the big screen, but the franchise has returned with GI Joe: Retaliation. The movie may have opened lower than its predecessor, taking $54 million versus $41 million in its opening weekend (although Retaliation can add another $10 million from Thursday), but it’s more than many had thought.
After DreamWorks Animation was forced to make tonnes of redundancies last month following the failure of Rise Of The Guardians, they’ll have a bit of cheer this morning with the news that The Croods has topped the US box office with $44 million. It’s a decent start, which is about on par with the studio’s Megamind and How To Train Your Dragon.