In this weekend’s competition between sequels, Fast & Furious 6 pulled ahead in the race and didn’t look back. The Vin Diesel-led flick, which currently has a Tribute rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars, won the box office showdown with an estimated $98.5 million. The movie’s weekend total is more than double that of the next closest challenger, The Hangover Part III. The final installment in the Vegas partying saga has a Tribute rating of 3.4 stars and fell below its $70 million expectations with $42.4 million over three days. Meanwhile, the J.J. Abrams-directed Star Trek Into Darkness dropped to third with $38 million. The sci-fi film has a strong Tribute rating of 4.2 stars and did fairly well against the weekend openers despite a nearly 50 per cent decline in sales from last week. Epic, the first family feature to debut since the popular and resilient DreamWorks film The Croods opened in March, managed $34.2 million. It has a Tribute rating of 4 stars and is probably a welcome addition to the theater line-up for movie-hungry children.
Iron Man 3 clung to the top 5 with $19.4 million and a rating of 3.8 stars. The Marvel superhero sequel has global ticket sales that surpassed $1.1 billion. The rest of the top ten includes some strong holdovers from past weeks that continue to hang on: The Great Gatsby, Mud, 42, The Croods and Oblivion. ~Cassie Jasinski