Universal. The studio claimed the top two movies, including surprise smash The Purge. The sci-fi thriller about a future when crime is permitted one night per year had been expected to debut on top of the chart and to sell modestly well, anywhere from $18 to $25 million, but no one expected it to earn an estimated $36.4 million. Credit the intriguing premise (which had the social media world buzzing for weeks in advance), the scares-on-a-shoestring ingenuity of producer Jason Blum (one of the masterminds behind the Paranormal Activity franchise and last fall’s horror hit Sinister), and star Ethan Hawke (who also starred in Sinister). Made for an absurdly cheap $3 million, The Purge already looks like the best return-on-investment movie of the year.
In second place, Universal’s Fast & Furious 6 lost a modest 44 percent of last weekend’s business to earn another estimated $19.8 million, for a three-weekend total of $202.9 million. Also holding up well was the Number Three movie, Summit’s magician caper Now You See Me, which saw just 34 percent of last weekend’s sales vanish, for a take this weekend estimated at $19.5 million and a two-week haul of $61.4 million.
In fifth place, 20th Century Fox’s cartoon Epic held on with an estimated $12.1 million, down just 27 percent from last week, for a three-week total of $84.2 million. And in sixth place, Star Trek Into Darkness earned an estimated $11.7 million, off just 30 percent from a week ago, and enough to cross the $200 million mark after 25 days.
Source-Rolling Stones
