Heading into the Memorial Day weekend, many box office watchers thought it would be a close race between Hangover Part III and Fast & Furious 6 as to who would come out on top. In the end, it’s the latter that streaked away, with $120 million in its first four days in US cinemas.
That’s not just the biggest start ever for the franchise, but the biggest opening in the history of Universal Studios, overtaking the $97 million Jurassic Park: The Lost World made back in the 90s. It’s certainly an impressive haul, especially for a franchise that only became a powerhouse with the last few entries.
In the end Hangover Part III slightly faltered with $63 million since its opening last Thursday. While that’s not bad at all for an R-rated comedy, it’s far below expectations, as Part II opened above $100 million in 2011. The film will still make a profit, but it’ll struggle to get close to the $586 million worldwide total of the previous Hangover movie.
The final new entry is the Fox toon Epic, which took $42.6 million. While that was only enough for fourth place (behind a strong second weekend showing for Star Trek Into Darkness), it’s more than many had expected. And with the next few weekends clear of new animated releases, it could continue to do well.
Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the four-day Memorial Weekend.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | Fast & Furious 6 | $120.0 | $120.0 |
| 2 | The Hangover Part III | $51.2 | $63.0 |
| 3 | Star Trek Into Darkness | $47.0 | $155.8 |
| 4 | Epic | $42.6 | $42.6 |
| 5 | Iron Man 3 | $24.3 | $372.4 |
| 6 | The Great Gatsby | $17.0 | $117.7 |
| 7 | Mud | $2.4 | $15.0 |
| 8 | The Croods | $1.6 | $179.6 |
| 9 | 42 | $1.6 | $91.4 |
| 10 | Oblivion | $1.0 | $87.5 |