'The Hangover Part III' Leads Thursday with a Soft $11.79 MillionMay 24, 2013 12:15 PM

by Daniel Garris

In what looks to be its only day at the top of the daily box office, Warner's The Hangover Part III led the way on Thursday with $11.79 million. The opening day figure also included an estimated $3.1 million from late night showings on Wednesday. The Hangover Part III opened 63 percent softer than the $31.61 million Thursday opening day take of The Hangover Part II back in 2011, which obviously makes Thursday's performance a very poor showing. The Hangover Part III performed more along the lines of Star Trek Into Darkness, which generated a Thursday opening of $13.54 million last week. However, The Hangover Part III is likely to be more front-loaded than Star Trek Into Darkness was in its first few days, especially given the competition it will face from Fast & Furious 6.

Speaking of Fast & Furious 6, Universal's highly anticipated action sequel was off to a far more impressive start with an estimated $6.5 million from 10 p.m. and midnight showings. The film's late night grosses will be counted towards Friday's opening day performance. The late night performance of Fast & Furious 6 was 71 percent stronger than the $3.8 million midnight take of 2011's Fast Five and 10 percent stronger than the $5.9 million midnight gross of 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand. Check back throughout the weekend for further box office updates on Fast & Furious 6, The Hangover Part III and the rest of the Memorial Day weekend line-up.

Paramount's Star Trek Into Darkness fell one spot on Thursday to place in second with an estimated $5.05 million. The second installment of the re-launched sci-fi series was down a reasonable 5 percent from Wednesday and down 63 percent from last Thursday's opening day performance. Star Trek Into Darkness was the week's top film with $95.29 million, but also debuted significantly below expectations in the process. The eight-day total for Star Trek Into Darkness stands at $108.83 million. That places Star Trek Into Darkness 6.5 percent behind the $116.37 million eight-day take of 2009's Star Trek, 34 percent behind the $163.87 million eight-day start of 2003's The Matrix Reloaded and 46 percent ahead of the $74.52 million eight-day gross of 2009's Terminator Salvation.

Iron Man 3 held steady in third place with $2.21 million. Disney's blockbuster superhero sequel fell a slim 2 percent from Wednesday and 33 percent from last Thursday. Iron Man 3 placed in second for the week with $46.19 million. That was down 48 percent from the previous frame and brings the film's three-week total to a massive $348.08 million.

Warner's The Great Gatsby fell one spot and 7 percent from Wednesday to claim fourth with $2.16 million. In the process, the Baz Luhrmann directed film starring Leonardo DiCaprio surpassed the $100 million domestic milestone on Thursday. The Great Gatsby reached the milestone in 14 days and has now grossed $100.73 million to date. The film claimed third place for the week with $33.98 million, which was down 49 percent from the film's opening week performance.