In spite of a 65% drop, Universal’s Fast and Furious 6 easily topped the weekend box office for the second straight session with an estimated $34.5 million.  Meanwhile the counter-programed caper film Now You See Me performed well beyond expectations as it earned $28.1 million, more than enough to top the Will Smith-starring post-apocalypse saga After Earth, which fell 20-30% below predictions to open with $27 million.  The overall box office trend was positive with the top 12 films earning 15.5% more than during the same frame last year when Snow White and the Huntsman topped the charts with $56.2 million.
 
It appears that a 65% drop is about par for the course for a major heavily-hyped summer blockbuster these days, especially when following a holiday weekend.  Fast and Furious 6, which contains some of the most kinetic (and totally improbable) stunts in recent memory, has now earned $170.3 million domestically.  The latest installment in the street racing franchise, which cost $160 million to produce, has now accumulated $480.6 million worldwide thus pretty much insuring that there will be a Fast and Furious 7.
 

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): May 31 - June 2, 2013
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens		Avg./ Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	Fast & Furious 6	$34,538,000		3,686	$9,370	$170,377,000	2
2	Now You See Me	$28,050,000		2,925	$9,590	$28,050,000	1
3	After Earth	$27,000,000		3,401	$7,939	$27,000,000	1
5	Star Trek Into Darkness	$16,400,000		3,585	$4,575	$181,156,000	3
4	Epic	$16,400,000		3,894	$4,212	$65,161,000	2
6	The Hangover Part III	$15,930,000		3,565	$4,468	$88,086,000	2
7	Iron Man 3	$8,006,000		2,895	$2,765	$384,751,000	5
8	The Great Gatsby	$6,265,000		2,635	$2,378	$128,256,000	4
9	Yei Jawaani Hai Deewani	$1,651,000		161	$10,255	$1,651,000	1
10	Mud	$1,226,000		581	$2,110	$16,866,000	6

Directed by genre specialist Louis (Transporter) Leterrier, Now You See Me wasn’t expected to challenge After Earth with most box office analysts citing an audience prejudice against movies about magicians and predicting a debut around $20 million.  While it is true that, given the special effects capabilities of the movies, audiences are justifiably as skeptical of the feats of magicians on the big screen as they are of ventriloquists, but Now You See Me is more of caper film that a typical "magician" movie.  Plus the victims of this gang of Robin Hood illusionists are the bankers that so many people hold responsible for the 2008 worldwide financial crisis, which gives the movie a populist edge.  Now You See Me, which features an excellent ensemble cast that includes Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Mark Ruffalo (The Avengers), Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, and Dave Franco received a solid "A-" CinemaScore from audiences, which likely means that After Earth will have a hard time catching up at least domestically.
 
Smith’s After Earth, which is based on a story that the actor co-wrote, has received withering reviews (only 14% positive on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences gave the film a neutral "B" CinemaScore.  While the domestic debut was certainly disappointing, Sony still holds out hope that film will do well overseas where it opens in 60 countries next week.  Perhaps Sony should have opened the movie overseas first given Smith’s popularity overseas.  The problem is that Smith only plays a supporting role in After Earth.  The real star is Smith’s son Jaden, which gives the film a feeling of a vanity project.  Unless After Earth does well overseas it is unlikely that the $130 million project, which Sony is presenting in some theaters in a new 4K ultra high definition format, will make its cost back theatrically.
 
The bigger question might be does After Earth’s poor debut mean there is trouble ahead for this summer’s surfeit of post-apocalyptic movies that include the comedy This Is the End (June 12th), World War Z (June 21st), and Elysium (August 9th).  Certainly there is no science fiction subgenre that has been so frequently brought to the big screen in recent years.  Are audiences finally tiring of this subgenre’s overused plot points?
 
Tied for fourth place (until final numbers are released tomorrow) are J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness and Fox’s animated feature Epic, both of which earned an estimated $16.4 million.  The latest Star Trek film has now earned $181.1 million domestically and should finish with at least $200 million domestically.  So far the film has earned $147.4 million, which gives the film a current worldwide total of $328.5 million, which is at least $100 million below the movie’s break even point.
 
Epic remained in fourth place for a second straight week.  The $100 million production dropped 51% as it brought its domestic cumulative to $65.2 million.  The movie has earned $84.5 million overseas and like many animated productions Epic will probably end up earning more overseas than it does domestically.
 
The Hangover Part III limped into sixth place as it slipped 62% during its second week in theaters.  A 62% drop is not good for a comedy, and Part III will finish far behind the first two installments domestically.  Still the film is doing well overseas where it has already earned $110.7 million (vs. $88 million so far here in the U.S.), so foreign earnings could allow the final Hangover film to break even.
 
Marvel Studio’s Iron Man 3 finished in 7th place during its fifth weekend in theaters.  So far the movie has earned $384.8 million domestically and appears likely to be the first 2013 film to cross the $400 million mark.  The latest Marvel movie is doing even better overseas and has now moved into fifth place all time with a worldwide total of $1.18 billion.
 
Check back next week when the comedy The Internship and the thriller The Purge open during one of this summer’s few weeks without the debut of another summer tentpole movie of some sort.