Low-budget film The Purge took top place at the box office its opening weekend knocking Fast and Furious 6 out of the no. 1 spot it has held for the past two weeks and surpassing Internship.

Purge, a $3 million horror flick is one of the lowest budget Hollywood films this year and was expected to come in at third place this weekend. The film brought in $34.6 million according to Hollywood.com.

The film stars Ethan Hawke and is a futuristic tale where all crime is legal for a 12-hour period one night a year and all legal and emergency services would be suspended during that time.

Purge marks Hawke's biggest opening ever, though not adjusting for inflation, coming in ahead ofthe $22.6-million debut of his 2001 crime drama Training Day.

Purge gained an online following last month, when its trailer was released on Internet.

View the trailer for The Purge below.

The film did not receive high popular acclaim, as only 59 percent of moviegoers liked it and 41 percent of critics did as well, according to Rottentomatoes.com.

Women made up 56 percent of the opening weekend audience for Purge - 56 percent of whom were under the age of 25. The film also appealed to a diverse group: About 33 percent of its audience was Latino.

Audience members who viewed the movie this weekend gave it an average grade of C, according to CinemaScore, but scary films typically receive poor CinemaScores and their success is not typically negatively affected by ratings.

The Vin Diesel action film Furious grossed $19.8 million for second place and Now You See Me, a film about bank-robbing magicians, came in third with $19.5 million.

The 20th Century Fox comedy The Internship, which cost $58 million to produce and stars Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson earned $18.1 million and came in fourth place.

Tags: The Purge fast and furious 6 The Internship Ethan Hawke vince vaughn