Weekend Estimates: Fast and Furious Weekend
May 26, 2013
Memorial Day weekend will be one for the record books, thanks to a gigantic opening for Fast and Furious 6 and a gaggle of good results for a trailing pack of three films. The Hangover III will pick up $42.4 million (the worst opening weekend for the franchise, but still a solid performance by any measure); Star Trek Into Darkness is looking at a good hold with around $38 million Friday-Sunday and $121 million so far; and Epic gets off to a good start with $34.2 million, which is comfortably the most ever earned by a 4th-place finisher, besting Madea's Witness Protection's opening last year. But the real accolades must be reserved for Fast and Furious.
The car action movie's $98.5 million opening weekend is the second-best ever for the sixth movie in a franchise series, behind only Star Wars Ep. III: Revenge of the Sith. It's also Universal's best ever opening weekend, and the 27th-biggest of all time. The weekend as a whole will easily top $250 million for a place in the top six biggest weekends of all time for total box office, setting a new Memorial Day record in the process. After a weak start, 2013 is back with a vengeance.
Even with the weekend dominated by tentpoles, there is still some room for limited releases to score. Before Midnight stands out in particular with a mighty $274,000 or so from five theaters for an average of close to $55,000. Frances Ha should also come close to, or slightly top, a $10,000 theater average while playing in 60 locations.
Bruce Nash bruce.nash@the-numbers.com
Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Star Trek Into Darkness, Fast and Furious 6, Epic, The Hangover 3, Frances Ha, Before Midnight, Hangover