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Kim Hollis: Fast & Furious 6 finished in first place for a second consecutive weekend. It has earned $171 million in 10 days of release. It is already the second most successful film in the franchise and is the first one to repeat at #1. What do you think of its performance to date?

Jay Barney: There is no other way to describe this but a major success for Universal studios. Despite critics like us slamming the franchise over and over again, they do very well with this series of movies. The projections for the film to make $1 billion worldwide are pretty on track, and from an investment standpoint there really isn't too much to complain about here. To put a finer point to it, Universal took a bit of a gamble and put it out on Memorial Day weekend where it could have gone up against stiff competition. Instead, it cruised to an easy first place finish, helped set the new record for Memorial Day weekends, and just repeated at the top of the box office. I almost hate to speculate, but you have to wonder if there is enough of a fan following for these films for Universal to branch out with different characters like the Marvel Universe has. Totally different examples, I understand that...but the seventh film in this franchise is already underway and the numbers don't indicate ANY weakness in the franchise.

Brett Ballard-Beach: The biggest opening weekend ever for a Universal Pictures film (the franchise now holds three of the top five slots in that field). Demographics of audience: 33% Hispanic and 49% female. They've tapped into two underserved consumer bases and are making a quality product to boot. I won't even try to come up with enough superlative praise to capture what Diesel et al have achieved. I recently caught up with Fast Five and thought it was a true action epic and ridiculously entertaining to boot (loved the climax chase around Rio). I am looking forward to seeing this one.

Max Braden: I tried to see it last weekend and couldn't because it was sold out, and had trouble again this weekend. When I heard people in line scrambling for another movie choice when FF6 wasn't available, the secondary choices I heard most often were Now You See Me, The Hangover Part III, and then Star Trek Into Darkness. That seems like a reversal from when Star Trek was in its prime and something like FF6 would have been just another car chase movie. As with FF5 I think Dwayne Johnson is a big factor, but more as a multiplier than the sole reason people are going. Story wise, the Letty angle is a mythos that people want to see explained, and the movies keep ramping up the plot stakes. I do also think there's a rubbernecking mentality of audiences wanting to see how ridiculous the airport scene is (there was plenty of mocking laughter in my theater - but notably plenty because the room was full). It's just all come together really well.

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