Box Office: 'Fast & Furious 6' tops biggest Memorial Day Weekend in history
Credit: Universal
The sixth installment of Universal's The Fast & the Furious franchise fueled a record Memorial Day weekend at the box office, opening to $38.2 million on Friday for what is projected to be a $119.3 million debut. This marks one of the top showings for the holiday weekend, and is a franchise-best.
Thanks in large part to Fast & Furious 6, Memorial Day ticket sales could reach as high as $320 million, which would top the previous record set in 2011 when revenues numbered at roughly $276 million.
And those are simply domestic numbers. Fast 6 is already racking up some of the biggest opening numbers ever for Universal overseas, earning another $36 million on Friday for a projected weekend gross of $150 million from 59 territories, adding up to a worldwide total in the ballpark of $270 million through Memorial Day.
In North America, the high-octane action pic is easily outracing The Hangover Part III, which placed a distant second, earning $14.5 million on Friday. This pushed the film's two-day total to $26.3 million (opening Thursday to get a headstart on the latest Fast & Furious flick). The comedy is anticipating a $54 million gross over the four-day holiday weekend, for a five-day gross of $65 million. This is a lukewarm gross when compared to the $135 million raked in by The Hangover Part II over the same period in 2011.
Meanwhile, Star Trek Into Darkness took in approximately $10.2 million for third place, while Fox's animated family feature Epic, placed no. 4. The animated film, the third new entry in this week's box office race, opened to an admirable $9.4 million for a projected four-day debut of $42 million. Iron Man 3 rounded out the top five with $5.1 million for a domestic total of $353.2 million.
The full top 10 via Box Office Mojo:
1. Fast & Furious 6
2. The Hangover Part III
3. Star Trek Into Darkness
4. Epic
5. Iron Man 3
6. The Great Gatsby
7. Mud
8. 42
9. The Croods
10. Oblivion
