Weekend Box Office Report: May 10-12, 2013

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Iron Man 3 fights for the top!

It seems that it's not too easy to keep a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist down, as Tony Stark proved in the face of other rich and handsome competition this weekend, propelling IRON MAN 3 to the top for a second week with an additional $72.4 million.

While that's nearly a 60% drop from its opening, it's still a respectable amount considering IRON MAN 3 was second only to THE AVENGERS for all-time biggest opening weekends (that record-smashing superhero gathering made $103M its second weekend).

And with a worldwide total already at $949 million, the armored champion's current trajectory will undoubtedly put IRON MAN 3 in the Top 10 global moneymakers (TOY STORY 3 is currently at #10 with $1.06 billion). Could it possibly even pass THE AVENGERS, now at #3 with $1.51 billion?

As for affluent challenger THE GREAT GATSBY, director Baz Luhrmann's lavish new 3D adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's literary classic placed second with $51.1 million. Star Leonardo Dicaprio's version of the wealthy party-thrower is the actor's second-best opening weekend behind Christopher Nolan's mindbender INCEPTION, which opened in July 2010 with $62.7 million.

But even with GATSBY's favorable first figures, nobody seemed quite sure what to make of the period piece featuring glitzy visuals and anachronistic tunes — critics were divided (48% on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences left it with a 'B' CinemaScore, which could present complications in a merciless summer movie season (especially since some reports say the grandiose production may have cost as much as $200M).

The weekend's other new release, the Craig Robinson/Kerry Washington comedy PEEPLES, got lost in the shuffle. Even with Tyler Perry "presenting", the counterprogramming attempt got ignored in fourth place with just $4.6 million, sammiched between the third weekend of Michael Bay's musclehead caper PAIN & GAIN and the fifth weekend of baseball biopic 42.

Things plummet even deeper in the bottom half of the chart, with Tom Cruise's OBLIVION still struggling to hit the $100 million mark domestically. Matthew McConaughey's MUD is still adding screens and providing an intriguing alternative to the summer fare (it has the highest per-screen average outside the top two), while Sam Raimi's OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL just barely has a finger in the Top 10 (it actually made less than a million bucks).

Outside the chart, SCARY MOVIE 5 and THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES were both displaced, while the limited release of horror-thriller NO ONE LIVES (from VERSUS and MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN director Ryuhei Kitamura) got slashed with just $866 per-screen — barely more than G.I. JOE: RETALIATION in its seventh week.

Next weekend brings back the rebooted crew of the Enterprise in J.J. Abrams' STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (opening Thursday), plus limited releases of horror cheapie BLACK ROCK and the Aaron Eckhart actioner ERASED.

How much do you think STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS will make over its opening weekend? VOTE HERE!