The Hangover Part III holds top slot at UK box office

Achieving what Star Trek Into Darkness and Fast & Furious 6 couldn’t do, The Hangover Part III has retained the top spot at the UK box office.

Warner Bros’ threequel achieved a respectable holdover to laugh its way to an additional $4.4m (£2.9m) for $20.6m (£13.5m) to date.

It still has some way to go before catching the original’s $33.4m (£22.1m) haul, with The Hangover Part II’s $49.5m (£32.8m) in little danger of being overtaken as the trilogy’s best performer.

Also for Warner Bros, The Great Gatsby continued its healthy UK run as it added $1.95m (£1.28m), climbing to $18.3m (£12m).

It is now just under £6m away from becoming director Baz Luhrmann’s best UK performer, topping Moulin Rouge!’s $27.3m (£17.9m). Gatsby will need to continue to showcase its resilience if it’s to hope to challenge that result.

Universal

After becoming the franchise’s best UK performer last week, Universal’s Fast & Furious 6 showed little sign of slowing in its third weekend, remaining in second place.

The sixth instalment in the increasingly popular franchise cruised to $3.1m (£2.04m) to break the £20m barrier and currently stands at a hugely impressive $32.8m (£21.5m) after 17 days in play.

With James Wong taking the reins for the seventh instalment, Justin Lin’s series swansong will prove a tough act to follow.

Also for Universal, The Purge debuted with $1.6m (£1.02m) from its 348 sites for a sturdy average of $4,473 (£2,929). Universal’s first micro-budget film under the studio’s production partnership with Jason Blum just missed out on the top five though, charting sixth.

Paramount

Paramount’s Star Trek Into Darkness warped to a further non-final $2m (£1.31m) to stand at $35.2m (£23.04m) after its fourth weekend.

Last week’s school holidays saw it overtake its 2009 predecessor’s $32.5m (£21.4m) UK performance.

Fox

Improving on its Fri-Sun debut weekend by 14%, Fox’s Epic grossed $3.03m (£1.98m) to cross the £10m barrier.

The 3D animation now stands at $15.5m (£10.1m) and, in terms of Blue Sky Studios output, is well placed to overtake the likes of the first Ice Age ($23m/£15.1m) and Rio ($20.7m/£13.6m).

Also for Fox, The Croods has amassed $39.8m (£26.03m) to date.

Lionsgate

The week’s second new entry came in the form of Lionsgate’s The Big Wedding, which charted seventh as a result of its $912,000 (£595,956) debut, including $308,000 (£201,457) in previews. That resulted in a somewhat soft $2,166 (£1,412) site average from its 422 cinemas release.

Disney

Falling a slim 30% in its sixth weekend, Disney’s Iron Man 3 added $654,000 (£428,000) to its mighty haul, which now stands at a heroic $55.5m (£36.4m).

StudioCanal

StudioCanal released Neil Jordan’s latest Byzantium in 160 sites, scoring a relatively bloodless $170,000 (£111,103) opening. The result was enough to see it chart in this week’s top ten in tenth.

eOne

eOne’s Populaire recorded a solid $163,000 (£106,192) from its 76 sites, while Mud has grossed $1.2m (£757,993) to date.

Upcoming releases

This week sees saturation releases for Sony’s After Earth and StudioCanal’s The Last Exorcism: Part II.

Picturehouse’s Stone Roses: Made of Stone (opens June 5) and Lionsgate’s The Iceman receive a wide release, while eOne’s Behind the Candelabra and Eureka’s Come As You Are are among the films receiving a limited release.