UPDATED: Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson's Google comedy "The Internship" opens to a disappointing $18.1 million, the lowest debut for a Shawn Levy film in a decade. 
 
 Universal and Jason Blum's microbudgeted thriller The Purge had no trouble scaring off The Internship as it grossed a stunning $36.4 million -- double the opening of the Google comedy. 
 
 The Purge, starring Ethan Hawke and Game of Thrones' Lena Headey, wasn't Universal's only victory of the weekend. Fast & Furious 6 claimed the No. 2 spot as it grossed $19.8 million in its third weekend to race past the $200 million mark domestically. Overseas, it all but tied for No. 1 with new entry After Earth, grossing $45.3 million from 62 markets in its third weekend for a worldwide total of $584.6 million. 
 
 Directed by Shawn Levy, The Internship placed No. 4 behind Now You See Me as it opened to a muted $18.1 million, despite reuniting Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson for the first time since Wedding Crashers in 2005. 
 
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 That's slightly better than expected, but 20th Century Fox and New Regency, which split the $58 million budget, had hoped for much more when embarking on the comedy. Many reviewers have skewered The Internship -- starring Vaughn and Wilson as washed-up salesmen who become interns at Google -- for being an advertisement for the giant tech company. Audiences were more generous, giving the PG-13 entry a B+ CinemaScore. 
 
 This marks Levy's worst opening in a decade (in 2003, Fox comedy Just Married debuted to $17.5 million). And it will come nowhere near to Wedding Crashers, which debuted to $33.9 million, ushering in a new era or prosperity for R-rated comedies. Levy and Vaughn, who produced and co-wrote The Internship, worked closely with Google throughout the process of making the film. 
 
 Fox president of domestic distribution Chris Aronson countered that the comedy received great scores. 
 
 "Well above-average ratings and definite recommends echo our test scores. This playability should ensure a great multiple as moviegoers continue to discover a gem of a comedy," he said. 
 
 From writer-director James DeMonaco, The Purge -- costing a mere $3 million to produce and already making its budget back -- is set in a future where one night a year all crime is legal. The film received a C CinemaScore, not unusual for the genre. 
 
 Heading into the weekend, The Purge -- Hawke's biggest opening in North America -- was tracking to open south of $20 million, but a strong turnout among younger female moviegoers and Hispanics led to the movie vastly overperforming. 
 
 "We didn't expect anything near this result," Universal president of domestic distribution Nikki Rocco. "The social media campaign really paid off, as well as the traditional campaign." 
 
 Hispanics -- the most avid moviegoers in the U.S. -- made up 33 percent of those buying tickets to The Purge, while those under the age of 25 made up 56 percent. The pic skewed female (56 percent). 
 
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 The Purge is the first title to be released through Universal's partnership with Blum, the producer behind the Paranormal Activity franchise and Insidious. Blum produced the movie with Michael Bay, Sebastien K. LeMercier and Bay's colleagues at Platinum Dunes, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller. 
 
 Fox's 3D animated family film Epic placed No. 5 in its third weekend, grossing $12.1 million for a domestic cume of $84.2 million. 
 
 J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness, continuing to enjoy an enviable hold, also jumped the $200 million mark in North America, grossing $11.7 million in its fourth weekend for a total of $200.1 million. Overseas, the film grossed $17.6 million for the weekend for an international haul of $176.4 million -- 40 percent ahead of Abrams' first Star Trek film, released in 2009. Into Darkness' worldwide cume is $376.4 million. 
 
 Sony's sci-fi epic After Earth, starring Will Smith and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, tumbled to No. 7 in its second week, grossing $11.2 million for a domestic cume of $46.6 million. The troubled pic debuted to $45.5 million overseas from 60 territories for an early foreign total of $48.6 million and worldwide cume of $95.2 million, well below what Smith is usually used to grossing. 
 
 Internationally, After Earth opened roughly on par with Tom Cruise sci-fi pic Oblivion, which has earned a solid, but unspectacular, $191.2 million. After Earth did its biggest business in Russia ($8.6 million). 
 
 Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing soared at the specialty box office, grossing $183,400 from five theaters in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco for a location average of $36,680, a victory for the filmmaker and Roadside Attractions. The black-and-white film, a festival darling, broke the house record at the Lincoln Center Film Society's theater on Saturday night with $15,027. 
 
 Twitter: @PamelaDayM ||||| By Gary Susman June 9, 2013 
 
 WINNER OF THE WEEK: Universal. The studio claimed the top two movies, including surprise smash The Purge. The sci-fi thriller about a future when crime is permitted one night per year had been expected to debut on top of the chart and to sell modestly well, anywhere from $18 to $25 million, but no one expected it to earn an estimated $36.4 million. Credit the intriguing premise (which had the social media world buzzing for weeks in advance), the scares-on-a-shoestring ingenuity of producer Jason Blum (one of the masterminds behind the Paranormal Activity franchise and last fall's horror hit Sinister), and star Ethan Hawke (who also starred in Sinister). Made for an absurdly cheap $3 million, The Purge already looks like the best return-on-investment movie of the year. 
 
 In second place, Universal's Fast & Furious 6 lost a modest 44 percent of last weekend's business to earn another estimated $19.8 million, for a three-weekend total of $202.9 million. Also holding up well was the Number Three movie, Summit's magician caper Now You See Me, which saw just 34 percent of last weekend's sales vanish, for a take this weekend estimated at $19.5 million and a two-week haul of $61.4 million. 
 
 In fifth place, 20th Century Fox's cartoon Epic held on with an estimated $12.1 million, down just 27 percent from last week, for a three-week total of $84.2 million. And in sixth place, Star Trek Into Darkness earned an estimated $11.7 million, off just 30 percent from a week ago, and enough to cross the $200 million mark after 25 days. 
 
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 LOSER OF THE WEEK: Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. To be fair, their Fox comedy The Internship opened at the high end of expectations, with an estimated $18.2 million. (Pundits had predicted a debut in the mid-teens.) Still, that was good enough for just a fourth-place premiere. It's a far cry from the $33.9 million debut of the pair's Wedding Crashers eight years ago (and that was at 2005 ticket prices). It's certainly better than the $12.8 million opening of Vaughn's The Watch last year, but it's clear that neither he nor Wilson is the box office draw he used to be. 
 
 'NOTHING' DOING: At the art house, Joss Whedon's home-movie version of Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing opened on just five screens but averaged $36,680 on each of them, for an estimated total of $183,400. That's the highest per-screen average by far of any movie this week. (The Purge averaged $14,353 per venue.) Also opening strong, on four screens, was the documentary Dirty Wars, with $16,500 per screen, for a total estimated at $66,000. And romance Before Midnight, taking advantage of the mini-wave of Ethan Hawkemania, expanded from 31 to 52 screens and saw business rise 45 percent to an estimated $585,000, for a total of $1.5 million in three weeks.
– Well, this was unexpected: The highest grossing film at the box office this weekend was The Purge. The what? Exactly. The low-budget thriller starring Ethan Hawke raked in $36.4 million in its opening weekend. That's twice as much as Shawn Levy's new comedy The Internship, which debuted at No. 4 with just $18.1 million, despite its marquee names of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, the Hollywood Reporter reports. Internship cost $58 million to make; Purge just $3 million. Rounding out the Top 5: Fast & Furious 6 kept speeding ahead in its third weekend, taking No. 2 with $19.8 million, bringing its total domestic earnings over $200 million. Now You See Me followed at No. 3 with $19.5 million, and kids' flick Epic at No. 5 with $12.1 million, reports Rolling Stone.