After the biggest Memorial Day weekend in Hollywood history, this weekend features Fast & Furious 6 trying to keep its momentum going. It hopes to top After Earth, even though chances are that it will take a huge drop from its opening weekend.
Fast & Furious 6 grossed a whopping $120 million in its first four days, clobbering The Hangover Part III. Over its first three days, Fast 6 made $96.8 million. Entertainment Weekly is predicting that it have enough gas left in the tank to stay at No. 1 for a second weekend, although it could take a steep fall to $40 million. Still, Universal won’t be complaining, since it would bring the 10-day total to a huge $175 million.
After Earth is a passion project for Will Smith, who co-stars with his son, Jaden Smith. The project is based on his original idea and he recruited M. Night Shyamalan to direct. Shyamalan is already in desperation mode, especially after The Last Airbender flopped and was clobbered by critics. Sony is hoping that the prominence given Smith in the ad campaign will outweigh whatever anyone thinks of Shyamalan.
It cost $130 million to make and follows Smith’s Men in Black 3, which made $54.6 million in its first weekend.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, After Earth is expected to open in the $35 million to $40 million range. If it does that, Sony will be happy, especially since this is an original story.
Epic could continue to be a surprise. EW expects it to add around $20 million in its second weekend and keeping Hangover III out of the top 5 in its second weekend. Fox’s animated film grossed $42.6 million last weekend and it remains the only animated release in theaters for families.
The second wide release of the weekend is Now You See Me with Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Morgan Freeman, Isla Fisher and Mark Ruffalo. It’s expected to open at around $15 million to $17 million, but a $20 million opening shouldn’t be a huge surprise. The film is from Summit.
image: Sony