Memorial Moolah Hunt

Theatrical box office is off to a rousing holiday start.

... The combined B.O. of “Fast and Furious” and “Hangover” — along with Fox-Blue Sky Animation’s $93 million family film, “Epic,” with a projected $40 million four-day opening — should propel Memorial Day weekend box office to record heights, surpassing the $273 million benchmark set in 2011. ...

I guess we're slowly edging out of the recession.

Friday Totals (Total Totals)

1) FAST & FURIOUS 6 -- $38,200,000

2) THE HANGOVER PART III -- $14,530,000 ($26,319,000)

3) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS -- $10,200,000 ($119,027,000)

4) EPIC -- $9,350,000

5) IRON MAN 3 -- $5,113,000 ($353,196,000)

6) THE GREAT GATSBY -- $3,960,000 ($104,687,000)

- 42 -- $300,000 -- ($90,104,000)

- THE CROODS -- $240,000 ($178,263,000)

As we get closer to the end of the weekend, here are the revised accumulations

Box Office Top Ten

1. Fast & Furious 6 - Universal - $98.5M
2. Hangover 3, The - Warner Bros. - $42.4M
3. Star Trek Into Darkness - Paramount - $38.0M
4. Epic - 20th Century Fox - $34.2M
5. Iron Man 3 - Disney - $19.4M
6. Great Gatsby, The - Warner Bros. - $13.7M
7. Mud - Roadside Attractions - $1.9M
8. 42 - Warner Bros. - $1.2M
9. The Croods - 20th Century Fox - $1.2M
10. Oblivion - Universal - $0.8M

The Croods had a sizable drop when Epic entered the marketplace, and Epic seems to be at expectations, per the Nikkster:

... Twentieth Century Fox/Blue Sky Studios’ 3D toon Epic is looking at $9.1M Friday and expecting $44.2M in 3,882 U.S. and Canadian locations for Memorial Weekend.

That’s about par for the course for original content animated films in a very competitive environment. (Opening weekends for recent comps range from $37M-$39M. This may pop since audiences gave it an ‘A’ CinemaScore which will help word of mouth. Sibling of the hit Ice Age and Rio franchises looks more earnest and less fun but benefits greatly from what has been a drought of family fare since March when The Croods opened.

Fox claims cost was $93M for this Chris Wedge-directed animated actioner with screenplay credited to James V. Hart & William Joyce, Dan Shere, and Tom J. Astle & Matt Ember. Producers were Lori Forte and Jerry Davis. Beyoncé was the cast ‘get’ plus Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, Christoph Waltz, Aziz Ansari, Pitbull, Jason Sudeikis, Steven Tyler. Blake Anderson, and Judah Friedlander. Epic began its $14.5M overseas rollout last weekend in only 16 markets - only 3 top – with 20 additional international territories opening this Memorial Weekend. ...