Boozing Drivers in Space

The Memorial Day Weekend has come and the 2013 box office has finally bent thrust alive after a string of successes in the merry month of May and a gangbusters, franchise-fueled holiday weekend.  Here's the four day results:

1. Fast & Furious 6- $120 million
2. The Hangover Part III- $51.2 million / $63 million total
3. Star Trek Into Darkness- $47 million / $155.8 million total
4. Epic- $42.6 million
5. Iron Man 3- $24.3 million / $372.4 million total
6. The Great Gatsby- $17.0 million / $117.7 million total
7. Mud- $2.4 million / $15.0 million total
8. The Croods- $1.6 million / $179.6 million total
9. 42- $1.6 million / $91.4 million total
10. Oblivion- $1.0 million / $87.5 million total
11. Oz: The Great & Powerful- $0.8 / $232.4 million total
12. Pain & Gain- $0.8 / $48.7 million total
13. Frances Ha- $0.7 / 0.9 total (60 screens)

Further down:
Before Midnight- $0.3 (5 screens) --> per screen average of $64,400
Stories We Tell- $0.1 / $0.3 total (27 screens)
Fill the Void- $79,000 (3 screens)
We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks- $34,300 (4 screens)

Fast Cars and Hangovers

Which long in the tooth franchise thrill ride are you handing your hard-earned dollars this weekend?  And which is gunning for the title of Queen of the Memorial Day Weekend box office race-- boohoo, I'm being catty over billion-dollar franchises.  The contestants for this year are particular muscular and the race is itching with more competitive, testosterone-y drive than ever before.  In one corner, there's Fast & Furious 6, which is inexplicably gaining bigger returns and higher critical acclaim as it ages forward; we can all relax- Fast & Furious 7  has already been set for a go.  Comparison here isn't quite as simple as the previous installment, Fast Five-- released two years ago-- came out in the lower pressure month of April and set a new high for the series.  The combatant is The Hangover Part III, which is overcoming odds on the fact that the last film-- released two years ago in the same weekend-- was felt a poor man's rendering of the first R-rated raunch attack that inexplicably engrossed audiences four summers ago.  Comparison here isn't quite as simple because early midnight showing are opening earlier and earlier these days.  This has been advertised as the final Hangover.  Here's how it stands right now with preliminary Friday numbers coming in:

1. Fast & Furious 6- $36.0 million
2. The Hangover Part III- $15.5 million + $11.7 made from Thursday gross
3. Star Trek Into Darkness- $15.5 million
4. Epic- $10.0 million
5. Iron Man 3- $5.2 million
6. The Great Gatsby- $4.0 million

Here's to the now middle aged men who preside over this holiday weekend!  Many considered it rather silly to have two huge (and expensive) franchise films competing against one another considering they shared the same audience.  However, it's not really even close anymore. In other news, The Great Gatsby broke the $100 million barrier at the North American box office, the first ever Baz Luhrmann film to do so.