Box Office Aftermath: ‘Fast & Furious 6’ Holds off Competition for Second Weekend Victory

Rounding out the weekend of May 31 – June 2, 2013, Fast & Furious 6 brought the heat once more, leaving the box office battlefield victorious. Box Office Aftermath is an ongoing column dedicated to recapping the weekend’s total ticket sales. Each week, combatants enter the cinematic war zone, bloodthirsty for your cash. But there can only be one true winner. In Box Office Aftermath, we will take a look at the numbers, how previous contenders fared, and provide a brief analysis of the results.

In a semi-surprising turn of events, the almighty Will Smith was unable to dethrone the might Fast & Furious 6 from atop the mountain. Since Iron Man 3’s debut May 3, Fast 6 is only the second movie to retain the top spot two weekends in a row. With another cool $35 million in the bag, Fast 6 is still on track to surpass Fast Five as the top grossing entry of the franchise. The same time last year, Fast Five was only able to capture $32.44 million its second weekend, but Fast 6 did have a higher drop off rate at 63.9 percent compared to Fast Five’s 62.4 percent.

Using slight of of hand, Now You See Me overtook Will Smith too with a respectable $29.35 million. Something you wouldn’t have entirely expected from an original movie about street magicians. Even with Steve Carrell starring in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, the film was only able to rake in a measly $10.17 million its first weekend, with a total run $22.53 million while in theaters. Pretty sad. Some people must still believe in magic.

As one of the largest bombs of the year, After Earth tanked in brilliant fashion with bad word of mouth and wretched reviews. The $130 million budgeted M. Night Shyamalan joint earned a weak $27.52 million. After Earth was able to create some distance between itself and the fourth ranking movie Star Trek Into Darkness, but it is nothing to be too proud of.

Speaking of. Star Trek Into Darkness kept strong in the top five and grossed $16.78 million, which isn’t terrible, but not great compared to 2009’s Star Trek, which earned $22 million its third weekend. Into Darkness will end up doing alright, but it hasn’t become the smash hit everyone was hoping for.

Capping off the top five was Epic. Children were still game to see the little animated flick and it’s the most family friendly movie out right now. Most families have probably already seen The Croods which remains firm in the top 10. Epic was able to gain $16.6 million for its second weekend, but fell 50 percent in sales.

Also in its second weekend is The Hangover Part III, which has not had the best of luck hitting the funny bones of this summer’s audience. Dropping 60 percent in ticket sales this weekend, The Hangover Part III brought in a meager $16.38 million. I believe it may be safe to say that Warner Bros. might stay away from that franchise for awhile.

A few other summer hits have also stuck around the top 10, which include Iron Man 3 ($8.42 million) and The Great Gatsby ($6.51 million). Both movies also lost an addition 450+ theaters to make room for the two new films opening up this weekend.

And if you’re looking for some love this summer, Before Midnight is picking up steam for its June 14 wide release as it earned $404 thousand in just 31 theaters. Not too shabby. The Richard Linklater film was the top average grosser per theater this weekend.

(Click the image below to enlarge the chart. All figures are domestic box office.)