May 28, 2013 by Vinnie Leduc
It hasn’t even been a full month since Iron Man 3 kicked off the summer blockbuster season with the second highest opening ever, but the domestic box office climbed to new heights by raking in an estimated $314 million in total gross over the extended four-day Memorial Day weekend, setting a new record for the holiday. Leading the crowded pack of summer movie options and driving most of the ticket sales was Fast & Furious 6, one of our honorable mentions for most anticipated movies of the year. It opened with the highest numbers ever for Universal Pictures and smoked the distributor’s previous best, set by Jurassic Park: The Lost World over the same weekend 16 years ago. Fast & Furious 6‘s $117 million debut surpassed The Lost World‘s and predecessor Fast Five‘s by about $25 million, and the action sequel left everything else in theaters in its dust.
Fast 6‘s furious first-place finish meant two other major releases and one holdover fought for second. The runner-up spot ultimately went to The Hangover Part III, another sequel on our list of honorable mentions for most anticipated movies of 2013. The return of the Wolfpack opened to only almost half of the amount that Part II did two years over the previous record-setting Memorial Day weekend. However, the comedy trilogy bookend drew just enough interest to beat holdover Star Trek Into Darkness. The sci-fi sequel topped the box office the previous weekend when it opened with numbers barely trailing its Star Trek predecessor despite a boost from 3D and IMAX shows, but now Into Darkness holds a very small lead after crossing the $150 million mark stateside.
The third wide release, computer-animated 3D adventure Epic, had a not-so-epic opening in fourth place. Rounding out the top five, which you can check out below via boxoffice.com, was Iron Man 3. The mega-blockbuster from Marvel recently eclipsed Transformers: Dark of the Moon to enter the top five all-time list in worldwide gross.
Next weekend, two movies will try to slow down Fast & Furious 6 and prevent it from repeating as the box office champ: sci-fi father-and-son adventure After Earth, starring Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith and named one of our most anticipated movies of the year, and heist flick Now You See Me.
Here are the numbers for the extended four-day holiday weekend:
- Fast & Furious 6 — Weekend Gross: $117.0 million — Total Gross: $117.0 million (new)
- The Hangover Part III — Weekend Gross: $50.3 million — Total Gross: $62.1 million (new)
- Star Trek Into Darkness — Weekend Gross: $47.2 million — Total Gross: $156.0 million (#1 last week)
- Epic — Weekend Gross: $42.8 million — Total Gross: $42.8 million (new)
- Iron Man 3 — Weekend Gross: $24.7 million — Total Gross: $372.8 million (#5 last week)
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