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| Paul Walker and Vin Diesel (r) star in Fast & Furious 6 |
This Memorial Day weekend is turning out to be one for the record books. Led by a furious charge from newcomers Fast & Furious 6, The Hangover Part III and Epic, domestic box office totals are expected to pass $323 million for the four-day holiday weekend ending Monday... 15% better than the old record of $276 million set in 2011.
Universal's Fast & Furious 6 surpassed expectations, raking in $98.5 million through Sunday... topping The Lost World: Jurassic Park ($90.2 million in 1997) for the studio's best domestic opening ever. Fast & Furious is supposed to take in an estimated $280 million worldwide after Monday's totals are added. Its projected $158 million international four-day total would set yet another record for a Universal opening overseas. Domestic totals were helped by a healthy Hispanic turnout: Hispanics accounted for 32% of the film's total audience.
Meanwhile, the final chapter in The Hangover franchise stumbled to a second-place finish, earning a disappointing $42.4 million Friday-Sunday. Part III is expected to total around $63 million for its first five days (it opened Thursday) way below the $135 million taken in by The Hangover Part II. Star Trek Into Darkness ($38 million) slipped to third place overall, pushing its 11-day domestic gross to just under $147 million. Fox Animation Studios' toon Epic opened well, taking in $34.2 million to place fourth... ahead of Iron Man 3 ($19.4M) which saw its domestic total pass $367 million. The Marvel superhero has now made $1.14 billion worldwide, becoming the fifth highest grossing film of all-time.
The top 10 films for this weekend...
1. Fast & Furious 6 $98.5M
2. The Hangover Part III $42.4M
3. Star Trek Into Darkness $38M
4. Epic $34.2M
5. Iron Man 3 $19.4M
6. The Great Gatsby $13.7M
7. Mud $1.9M
8. 42 $1.2M
9. The Croods $1.2M
10. Oblivion $815,000
