Memorial Madness

    Memorial weekend is always lucrative at the box office, but this weekend, May 24-27, brought in the money and people in droves. This weekend is the highest grossing and most attended Memorial weekend of all time with $310 million in business. Though only the 6th highest grossing 3-day weekend ever, its the most attended and highest grossing 4-day. Another amazing feat is that Furious 6, the #1 movie, only accounted for 39% of the total. In most weekends this big, the #1 usually takes in 60-80% of the business.

     Furious 6 came in at #1 with $120m, Hangover 3 at #2 with $51.2m, Star Trek at #3 with $47m, Epic at #4 with 42.6m, Iron Man 3 at #5 with $24.3m, and Gatsby at #6 with $17m. The next closest movie was Mud with

only $2.4m. These numbers all look good together, but there were some successes, along with some stinkers. And I mean clogged port-a-potty type of stinker.

     Furious 6 defied expectations and gravity. Its 3-day opening increased over Fast 5 and it is also Universal's highest opening ever. 3 of the top 4 Universal openings are from the Fast and Furious series. It is by far their biggest franchise. Universal has been trying to expand F&F's audience, and they succeeded, bringing in 46% females and 43% under the age of 25. Another interesting fact is the opening was 32% Hispanic. Furious 6 will now coast past Fast 5's total with ease.

     Hangover 3's weekend may look big, but "fail" is the only word to describe it. Hangover 3's five day total is $63m, but Hangover 2 opened to $135m on the same weekend two years ago. Given that movies drop big the next weekend and Hangover 3's total is so far off from 2, Hangover 3 will certainly finish below Furious 6's 4-day total. That's one Hangover that WB might not want to wake up from. The movie has also been ravaged by critics, 21% and 4/10 on RT, mocked by audiences, and likely will be neglected in the coming weeks - at least until it hits Redbox. Many factors could contribute to Hangover 3's collapse - more of the same, lukewarm reception of Part 2, the change on emphasis from comedy to action, poor reviews, competition (doesn't help that F6 got 72% on RT and an A from audiences), fatigue, and the blatant killing of animals. PETA will be on WB's ass soon enough.

     Epic, being the first kids movie since March, scored well and should play well with families with no major competition for 4 weeks when Monsters University opens and with kids now getting out of school.

     After a "disappointing" opening last week, Star Trek Into Darkness rebounded this weekend, even with the stiff competition. Darkness is now back on track for an over $200m finish and Paramount's losses should be softened. Though, they'll still have losses.

     Iron Man 3 is still going strong after 4 weeks and its total now stands at $372m. IM3 will soon finish over $400m and it could be the only 2013 film to do so, though Catching Fire still has a shot, but regardless, Iron Man 3 will likely stay the highest grossing movie of the year and the highest grossing movie until Avengers 2 in 2015, but with box office, anything can happen. Gatsby sits at $117m and its run is still doing better than what most expected.

     May 2013 has already set a record for highest grossing May of all time and the rest of the summer looks huge as a whole. Man of Steel, Despicable Me 2, Monsters U, World War Z, White House Down, Elysium, Pacific Rim, Lone Ranger, The Purge, The Heat, Grown Ups 2, 2 Guns, Smurfs 2, After Earth, This Is The End, Wolverine, yeah the list just keeps going. 2013 is closing the gap with 2012 and this Summer likely will land as the top grossing and one of the most attended of all time. No need to do drugs because these movies will provide one of the best highs you'll experience. Get to your theater and prepare to melt in your seat!