Weekend Box Office Report: June 7-9, 2013

Everyone feels the urge to Purge!

Summer is normally the time when attractively packaged, aggressively promoted and astronomically budgeted movies rule the box office. But this weekend the low-budget horror flick THE PURGE showed them all who's boss, taking the #1 spot with a $36.3 million opening.

The R-rated movie, featuring Ethan Hawke in a futuristic society where all crime is allowed one night a year, basically made back its relatively miniscule $3 million budget just from Thursday late shows. Director James DeMonaco will probably have a full inbox tomorrow morning (his only previous feature directing experience was the little-seen crime movie STATEN ISLAND, also featuring Hawke).

It's not all blood and roses, though — paying crowds gave the masked terror a mediocre 'C' CinemaScore, which (along with a certain legendary superhero) could take a slice out of future business. Still, the (somewhat) similarly themed domestic invasion cheapie THE STRANGERS ended up with $52.5 million back in 2008. And an opening weekend that's 12 times its budget is surely enough to produce some smiling faces on those responsible for THE PURGE.

FAST & FURIOUS 6 had just enough juice in the tank to cross the line in second with $19.7 million, just as it also coasted past the $200 million mark in its third weekend of release (it's at $584M worldwide). Not far behind with $19.5 million was the magician heist movie NOW YOU SEE ME, whose smoke-and-mirrors seems to be working for word-of-mouth, judging by its commendable 33% drop since its opening last week.

And then in fourth, the reunion of WEDDING CRASHERS duo Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in the PG-13 comedy THE INTERNSHIP, thudding with $18.1 million. On the upside, audiences did somehow grant the Google-based goofing a 'B+' CinemaScore, and there isn't much currently in theaters for comedy competition (2005's WEDDING CRASHERS started with $33.9M and ended up over $200M). But THE INTERNSHIP's opening is a near-low for director Shawn Levy (NIGHT AT THE MUSEUMs, DATE NIGHT).

The computer-animated fantasy EPIC is slowly battling its way to the $100 million mark, while STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS just warped past $200M in its fourth weekend. The outlook is grim for Will and Jaden Smith as AFTER EARTH lost nearly 60% from its already nominal opening last week. While nearing $100M globally, it's definitely on the low end of director M. Night Shyamalan's box office history (even the disaster THE HAPPENING made $163M worldwide).

THE HANGOVER PART III may be a domestic disappointment (compared to the first's $277M and the sequel's $254M), but it's already made an additional $110M overseas. IRON MAN 3 continues to fulfill the comic book character quotient until the big red 'S' arrives, while MUD is finally cleaned off after clinging to the bottom of the chart for over a month, and Joss Whedon's Shakespeare adaptation MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING had a decent but not explosive limited-release opening with a $36k per-screen average.

Next weekend brings Superman back to theaters in the highly anticipated MAN OF STEEL, while Seth Rogen and friends face the apocalypse in THIS IS THE END (on Wednesday), HARRY POTTER star Emma Watson commits crime in THE BLING RING (in limited release), and Ethan Hawke's BEFORE MIDNIGHT expands to over 600 screens.

How much do you think MAN OF STEEL will make during its opening weekend? VOTE HERE!