Weekend Box Office Report: May 31-June 2 2013

By Kip Mooney • On • In News News 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT "” May 31-June 2, 2013(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

1. Fast & Furious 6 ($34.5 million)2. Now You See Me ($28.0 million)3. After Earth ($27.0 million)4. Epic ($16.4 million)5. Star Trek Into Darkness ($16.4 million)

 

Moviegoers couldn't resist another trip in the suped-up rides of Vin Diesel and company. The sixth Fast & Furious repeated at No. 1 with an estimated $34.5 million. It's the first film in the franchise to stay at the top spot for more than one weekend, though that's likely due to the lack of competition. This entry has made more than $170 million so far and will end up being the top film in the series within two weeks. 

The magician-heist film Now You See Me took second place with $28 million. For some perspective, that's more than The Incredible Burt Wonderstone made in its entire run earlier this year. The cast of Now You See Me clearly had God (aka Morgan Freeman) on their side. If word-of-mouth is positive, this could become one of the breakout hits of the summer. But no disrespect, like the No. 1 film, it's likely more of a lack of competition that allowed it to do so well.

Last and certainly least is the first flop of the summer, After Earth. As you read on the site earlier this week, we thought the Will and Jaden Smith sci-fi flick was a pretty big stinker. Its $27 million take is the lowest opening ever for a Will Smith movie premiering in the summer. Yes, worse than Wild Wild West. That makes his second huge misfire in five years (the other being the truly bizarre Seven Pounds). This wouldn't be so bad if he had been working at his old rate of a movie a year, but his only other film in that time frame was the underperforming Men in Black 3. Yikes.

Outside the top 5: - This weekend's Indie Champ: The East, the domestic terrorism thriller from the creators of The Sound of My Voice. It averaged nearly $19,000 on each of its four screens. 

-&nbspBollywood romantic comedy Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, which roughly translates to This Youth is Crazy, opened at No. 9 with around $1.6 million. Every year or so, one of these imports will open in just a handful of theaters and end up with a huge debut. You'd think this would make Hollywood consider tailoring more films to Indian-American audiences, but you know, it doesn't have explosions or boobs, so clearly it couldn't be successful.

- Keep an eye out for The Kings of Summer, which opened on only four screens this weekend. The coming-of-age tale, which sadly got saddled with an R rating because the kids in it talk like actual kids, is set to begin its slow national expansion soon. I've heard nothing but great things.

Next week: It's another slow weekend as Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson try to reclaim their former box office glory with The Internship. Both are about five years removed from their last big live-action hits where they were the stars "” Four Christmases for the former, Marley and Me for the latter "” so it's hard to gauge if audiences are dying to see them reunite. I predict a very soft No. 1 with $25 million. Right behind them, opening on far fewer theaters, is The Purge. Well-marketed horror can do well in the summer (see The Strangers, or don't if you'd like to sleep tonight). The advertising team seems to have done a great job of piquing curiosity online, so $20 million for No. 2 seems very reasonable.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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