June 11, 2013 by Vinnie Leduc
The Purge had one last surprise during its debut over the weekend: a huge win over two-time reigning champ Fast & Furious 6 at the domestic box office. After speeding ahead to the front of the pack in its opening during a Memorial Day weekend that soared with historic numbers and then maintaining its lead the next weekend as Will Smith & son’s sci-fi vehicle After Earth crash-landed, Fast & Furious 6 looked like it had a clear road ahead to become the first movie of 2013 to three-peat at the stateside box office.
However, it wasn’t even the PG-13 reunion of Wedding Crashers Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in Google comedy The Internship that slowed down action crowdpleaser Fast & Furious 6, one of our honorable mentions for most anticipated movies of the year. Instead, it was an R-rated high-concept horror thriller called The Purge, a reunion of star Ethan Hawke and a producer of Sinister (one of the best horror movies of last year, if not the best). With its opening take of $34.1 million nearly double that of Sinister last October and The Internship last weekend, The Purge has already made a killing, especially considering that it was made for only $3 million. According to BOM, the low-budget horror movie has replaced another one, The Devil Inside, to claim the record for highest opening ever for an original R-rated horror film.
This decelerated Fast & Furious 6, whose consolation prize was rolling past the $200 million mark, into the runner-up spot, just inches ahead of magicians-as-thieves caper flick Now You See Me, another movie whose strong performance at the box office despite not having typical blockbuster fanfare is surprising. While it was barely left in Fast & Furious 6‘s smoke by about half a million, Now You See Me left fourth-place The Internship in its smoke and mirrors by almost a couple million. Holding steady and rounding out the top five was DreamWorks Animation’s fantasy adventure Epic, and falling out of the top five was sci-fi sequel Star Trek Into Darkness, which will soon cross the $200 million mark, at sixth and M. Night Shyamalan’s After Earth, which continued its descent into Planet Flop at seventh.
The upcoming weekend throws two more new major releases, both of which are on our list of the year’s most anticipated movies, into the summer mix. Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, starring Henry Cavill as one of the most popular superheroes ever, should fly to an astronomical debut over This is The End, an apocalyptic comedy with an ensemble cast.
Here are the numbers for the top five over the weekend:
- The Purge — Weekend Gross: $34.1 million — Total Gross: $34.1 million (new)
- Fast & Furious 6 — Weekend Gross: $19.6 million — Total Gross: $202.8 million (#1 last week)
- Now You See Me — Weekend Gross: $19.0 million — Total Gross: $60.9 million (#2 last week)
- The Internship — Weekend Gross: $17.3 million — Total Gross: $17.3 million (new)
- Epic — Weekend Gross: $11.9 million — Total Gross: $83.9 million (#5 last week)
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