Weekend Box Office: June 7-9

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  The Purge - $36.3 million

2.  Fast & Furious 6 - $19.7 million

3.  Now You See Me - $19.5 million

4.  The Internship - $18.1 million

5.  Epic - $12.1 million

6.  Star Trek Into Darkness - $11.7 million

7.  After Earth - $11.2 million

8.  The Hangover Part III - $7.3 million

9.  Iron Man 3 - $5.7 million

10.  The Great Gatsby - $4.2 million

This weekend was expected to be a quiet one at the box office, with Man of Steel still a week away and no major summer tentpoles set for release, but thanks in part to a rain-soaked East Coast, this turned out to be a very busy weekend at the movies. 

First up is the 'crime-is-legal' thriller The Purge, which shocked the hell out everyone with a staggering $36.3 million.   The movie only cost about $3 million to make (and whaddya know, it was produced by Jason Blum, who also produces those no-budgeted Paranormal Activity movies), so it's going to make a massive profit and probably spawn some sequels...even with poor word-of-mouth drop of 38% from Friday to Saturday.  It's a good weekend to be Ethan Hawke - his sequel Before Midnight also did some fine business, earning an estimated $585,000 in just 50 theaters nationwide.

The weekend's other new release, The Internship, which reunites Wedding Crashers duo Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, did all right with just $18.1 million, although it still finished the weekend in fourth place behind Fast & Furious 6, which continues to race along, earning another $19.7 million, and surprise hit Now You See Me, which wound up with $19.5 million. 

Fast & Furious 6, in the meantime, passed the $200 million mark this weekend, and will soon pass Fast 5's $209 million domestic haul.  Also passing $200 million this weekend was Star Trek Into Darkness, although at this point that sequel has little-to-no chance of passing the 2009 Star Trek's $260 million domestic total (and booooo!! I loved the new Star Trek).

Rounding out the top five was the animated Epic, which has earned a respectable $84 million in the quiet before Monsters University and Despicable Me 2 arrive to snag those family audiences.

Next weekend sees the long-awaited release of the apocalypse comedy, This Is The End.  Bwahahaha...just kidding. 

Man of Steel.  It arrives.  Next weekend.