Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | Box Office Round-Ups | May 27, 2013
It was a huge weekend at the box office. In fact, the $317 million tally made it the biggest Memorial Day weekend on record. Leading the way was Fast & Furious 6, which coincidentally also racked up $317 million worldwide over the weekend ($120 million domestic). The franchise had its biggest opening to date, it received an A+ from the under 25 male demo on Cinemascore, and there are zero signs that the franchise is abating anytime soon. I imagine the series will continue for decades, swapping in and out cast members as the franchise ages.
The Hangover III came in second, adding $51 million over the four-day weekend, and while it was down a bit from The Hangover II, the franchise will still make serious box-office green internationally. Hopefully, however, this will be the end of it: Critics hated it, and even the typically overenthusiastic Cinemascore grades were less than pleased with the result. Even Bradley Cooper had a hard time defending it.
The other major opener this weekend was Epic, which came in fourth (behind Star Trek: Into Darkness) with $42 million, and about another $42 million worlwide, which is good enough for the $100 million budged animated film, particularly since it has little competition until the arrival of Monsters University on June 21st. Iron Man 3, which is up to $1.14 billion worldwide, rounded out the top five. Gatsby was sixth, with $13 million, then the box office cratered: Matthew McConaughey’s Mud was seventh with $1.9 million, which basically means that 95 percent of Americans who went to the movies this weekend saw one of six films.
Nevertheless, the third in Linklater’s trilogy, Before Midnight, had the highest per screen average of all films, $49,000, or nearly twice the average of Fast & Furious 6. Then again, Before Midnight was on one screen, while F&F6 was in 3,600.
Now, here’s what you came to see: The awkwardness of youth, y’all.
Vin Diesel
The Rock
Ludacris
Luke Evans
Paul Walker
