Weekend Box Office Report: May 31-June 2, 2013

FF6 beats Smiths and magicians!

The box office sputtered a bit after Memorial Day weekend's record-breaking business, but FAST & FURIOUS 6 still had enough nitrous to rocket past all challengers and rush to first place with another $34.5 million in its second week.

While that's almost a 65% drop from its enormous opening, its 10-day total is already $170.3 million and it's rapidly closing on half a billion total worldwide. FAST FIVE ended up with $626.1 million globally, and FF6 looks like it's on the road to similar figures.

As for the newcomers, the illusionist caper NOW YOU SEE ME ended up picking the most pockets, taking second with a $28 million opening. Although that's much lower than the last two major efforts from director/Luc Besson protégé Louis Leterrier (CLASH OF THE TITANS started with $61.2M, THE INCREDIBLE HULK with $55.4M), it's an original story and also performed better than even the studio expected. Audiences also seemed mostly satisfied and granted it an 'A-' CinemaScore, which means it could have some surprising summer endurance.

Not the case for the father/son sci-fi thriller AFTER EARTH, which crashed in third with $27 million. The movie, carrying a $130M price tag, put superstar Will Smith and offspring/commodity Jaden together with director M. Night Shyamalan. But the videogame-like story (based on Big Willie's idea) didn't draw the same kind of crowds that push Smith's movies like MIB3, I AM LEGEND and HANCOCK to opening weekends two or three times that of AFTER EARTH. Maybe people just wanted to see him do more than sit in a chair and talk for 90 minutes? Judging by the 'B' CinemaScore, that may be the case.

Tied for fourth place were the CG animated fantasy EPIC (which also opened in fourth last week) and JJ Abrams' sequel STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, both with an estimated $16.4 million. EPIC is doing better internationally than domestically — its worldwide total is $150M, while TREK has beamed up $328 globally so far.

It looks like US audiences are forgetting THE HANGOVER PART III quicker than a Wolf Pack wild night, as last week's #2 movie drops to sixth with $15.9 million. The end of the debauchery trilogy is groping for the $100 million mark and seems highly unlikely to get anywhere near the domestic totals of the first ($277M) and second ($254M), but the overseas market is where the big bucks will be made — PART II somehow pulled in $332.3M just from international crowds.

Even with $1.18 billion, IRON MAN 3 will probably stall at #5 on the all-time worldwide chart, as it seems doubtful it can catch up to HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2's $1.34 billion. Further down, the Bollywood "coming of age" comedy YEH JAWAANI HAI DEEW (aka THIS YOUTH IS CRAZY) had a strong showing on 162 screens, putting it just ahead of the resilient MUD.

Outside the chart, OBLIVION, THE CROODS and 42 leave the Top 10, while the indie FRANCES HA is performing well on 133 screens and THE EAST and THE KINGS OF SUMMER opened to only moderate attention in limited release.

Next weekend reunites THE WEDDING CRASHERS stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn for the Google-based comedy THE INTERNSHIP, while anything goes for Ethan Hawke in the horror-thriller THE PURGE, and THE AVENGERS director Joss Whedon scales things down considerably for his adaptation of Shakespeare's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (in limited release).

What June release are you most looking forward to seeing? VOTE HERE!