Fast and Furious 6 Speeds Up at the Top Box Office, Hangover III Lands at 2nd Spot
The movie industry celebrated the strong and record-breaking box office sales during the Memorial Day weekend, and among the big contenders, Fast and Furious 6 grabs the top spot.
The blockbuster receipt for the four-day Memorial Day weekend amounted to $316 million in total and this is the first time it happened. "Over $300 million for Memorial Day weekend has never happened before. This proves that when you have a great selection of films, audiences will line up at movie theaters in record numbers," Paul Dergarabedian stated, the box office analyst from Hollywood.com.
The latest franchise for the Fast & Furious grabbed the No. 1 spot, earning $120 million for its opening weekend. Hollywood.com reported that it is the highest opening weekend receipt achieved by Universal Picture. Nikki Rocco, The head of distribution for Universal Pictures said, "The creative team, the filmmakers and the studio put their heart and soul into making it bigger and better. When you have this many films in the franchise ... you have to take it in a new direction."
Fast and Furious 6 starring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker also won the international blockbuster race with their box office earnings of $158 million in other countries.
Meanwhile, following the top spot of Fast and Furious 6 is the comedy movie, The Hangover Part III from the Warner Brothers. The latest installation for the comedy trilogy film was able to collect $51.2 million, a little less than the half of the earnings of Fast and Furious 6. The movie stars Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper.
Star Trek: Into Darkness of the Paramount Pictures landed at the third spot with $47 million, while the animated film from Fox titled Epic was able to earn $42.6 million, putting them at the 4th spot. Iron Man 3, on its fourth week was still competitive grabbing the 5th spot with $24.4 million.
