UK Box Office 31 May - 2 June 2013

This Hangover shows no sign of going away any time soon, as part three in the comedy series held on to the top spot for a second week and the top three remained unchanged. After last week’s previews are removed, a drop of 40% to £2.9m is a decent hold for The Hangover Part III and much stronger than the 62% drop the film experienced on its second weekend in the US. After 10 days it has now grossed £13.5m and is comfortably the highest grossing live-action comedy of the year so far.

Second place was once again taken by Fast & Furious 6, which managed another £2.1m for a huge cume of £21.5m. With Fast Five having set a series best of £18.5m, the franchise is growing in popularity and the sixth instalment looks set to get close to £25m.

Epic held on to third and once last week’s previews are removed, actually improved its weekend total, with a 13% leap to £2m. With a cume of £10m, the animated adventure has clearly benefitted from a lack of other family titles in cinemas at present.

In fourth spot with £1.3m was Star Trek Into Darkness, which crossed the £23m mark on Sunday, while The Great Gatsby crossed the £12m mark, also with a further £1.3m.

In sixth spot was the highest new entry, horror thriller The Purge. It’s the second consecutive horror that Ethan Hawke has starred in, with the last, Sinister, opening with £1.4m in October.

The weekend’s only disappointment was all-star comedy, The Big Wedding which, despite being the only film of its type currently on release could only manage £596k (including £201k from previews).

Two art-house titles opened at the lower end of the top 15 with British vampire thriller Byzantium debuting with £114k and French period comedy, Populaire with £106k. Overall the box office was down 29% from last weekend and 26% from the same weekend last year when Prometheus and Snow White and the Huntsman opened.

In the US, Fast & Furious 6 held on to the top spot but experienced a sharp decline, falling 65% to $34.5m. After 10 days it has now earned $170.4m and is on track to eclipse Fast Five’s final total of $209.8m. In second place, and the highest new entry, was magician caper Now You See Me, which opened to an impressive $28.1m. The audience was 51% female and 52% under 30.

Sci-fi adventure After Earth disappointed in third place with $27m, which is almost slap-bang in between last year's sci-fi flops John Carter ($30.2m) and Battleship ($25.5m). The audience was 51% male and 60% were 25 years of age or older. Star Trek Into Darkness and Epic tied for fourth place with $16.4m. Into Darkness now has a cume of $181.2m, while Epic has grossed $65.2m.