Todd Phillips Eats His Words as ‘Fast & Furious’ Clobbers ‘Hangover’ at Holiday Weekend Box Office

Back in April at the CinemaCon in Vegas, director Todd Phillips was asked if he was nervous about the third installment of his Hangover trilogy going up against Fast & Furious 6 over Memorial Day weekend. His answer took the form of an expletive-laden rant that concluded thusly:

"Come on, it's ... Vin Diesel and the Rock."

Even at the time this seemed a little arrogant. I mean, the dude was talking about Fast & Furious 6 like he had just made Godfather II instead of a movie that gets most of its laughs from a half-naked Asian man.

Well, guess what, Todd? It turns out that everybody loves Vin Diesel, The Rock, and Fast & Furious 6—the critics who gave it a 72% over at Rotten Tomatoes, as well as the fans who forked over $120 million to see it over the last four days. Meanwhile, Hangover III? Not so much. The critics blasted the thing, and it earned just $51.2 million at the box office.

Will it end up making money for Warner Brothers? Yeah, probably. But not much. The thing cost them a whopping $103 million to make, thanks in large part to the increase in actors' salaries—which including a $5 million payday for the afore-mentioned half-naked Asian man.

So here's a new rule for directors: if your name isn't Steven Spielberg or James Cameron, no trash-talking.