The Purge Kicks Fast 6 from Top

For the second week in a row, domestic audiences came out in better-than-expected numbers for an original film with no built-in audience as the thriller The Purge debuted at number one without A-list stars. The top five contained only one sequel — amazing for a summer weekend — with moviegoers spreading their dollars around as seven films grossed over $10M each last weekend.

Ethan Hawke stars in the low-budget The Purge (Universal Pictures)

Universal’s The Purge starring Ethan Hawke soared to a $34.1M opening weekend, more than 10 times its production budget. Produced for just $3M, the R-rated story tells of a time in the near future when American society has nearly eradicated all crime, but allows one day a year when anything goes with no criminal consequences. But Purge’s success was more a result of fantastic marketing than quality filmmaking. The studio’s slick trailer, aggressive promotional push and social media hype registered with young adults who drove opening day sales to a stellar $16.8M including $3.4M from Thursday night shows. But sales collapsed the second day of release as Saturday tumbled 38 percent to $10.5M and a 35 percent decline on Sunday to $6.8M.

Dropping to second place after two weeks at the top was the action sequel Fast & Furious 6 with $19.6M. Look for it to break franchise records for domestic, international and global grosses by next weekend on its way to a final worldwide haul north of $800M after July releases in China and Japan. Part 7 is slated for release next summer on July 11.

The surprise hit Now You See Me held up very well in its second weekend with $19M. The Lionsgate release is now on course to reach $100M or more domestically making for another original film with no built-in audience that is attracting large crowds against the mega-budgeted summer sequels.

Opening in fourth place with only moderate results was the Vince Vaughn-Owen Wilson comedy The Internship with $17.3M. It was the latest in a recent string of mainstream comedy releases from each actor that failed to draw big crowds like their earlier hits had. The Fox release about two middle-aged men who compete with college-age whiz kids for jobs at Google played evenly between men and women and skewed older with 61 percent of the crowd being over 25.