Sunday, June 14, 2009

'Hangover' hangs on to the box office lead with $33.4 million


JPX decalres The Hangover to be hilarious!

From ew, Moviegoers are still feeling The Hangover in the comedy's second weekend, making the boys-night-out romp the first movie of the summer to hold the top spot for two weeks in a row. A super-slim 26% decline (based on Sunday estimates) suggests great word of mouth and repeat business for the pic, which has already made $105.4 million and is now widely expected to cross the $200 million mark in the coming weeks.

The Hangover's stiffest competition was another holdover, Disney/Pixar's Up ($30.5 million). The animated adventure saw its total gross balloon to $187.2 million in its third weekend, putting it on track to outshine last year's hit WALL-E, which made $223 million. But Up's biggest payday is likely still to come. The movie has yet to open overseas, where Pixar titles often double their hauls (WALL-E made over $300 million in foreign countries, while 2007's Ratatouille cooked up a sizzling $414 million to complement its $206 domestic take).

Despite two A-list names above the title, the John Travolta/Denzel Washington thriller The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 landed in the C-slot at the weekend box office with a soft $25 million debut. John Travolta opted out of the film's promotional tour on account of his recent family tragedy, leaving Washington to plug the film solo on Letterman and at the film's premiere. Accordingly, the movie opened pretty much in line with past Washington action pics like Déjà Vu ($20.6 million) and Inside Man ($29.0 million), falling way short of the $43.6 million bow of 2007's American Gangster, when the actor shared top billing with Russell Crowe.

Rounding out the top five are Ben Stiller's Night at the Museum 2, which added $9.6 million to its collection for a $143.4 million total, and the Will Ferrell dud Land of the Lost, which dropped 51% for a $9.2 weekend haul and a $35 million cumulative gross.

But there's no doubt about the week's biggest loser: Eddie Murphy's Imagine That landed with a thud in the sixth-place spot, with just $5.7 million and a disastrous $1,894 per-site average from over 3,000 locations. It's the summer's biggest bomb so far, although it actually marks a slight improvement for Murphy, whose Meet Dave opened to a dismal $5.3 million last July.
Be sure to check back next week, when Sandra Bullock (The Proposal) takes on Jack Black and Michael Cera (Year One) for the box office crown—with The Hangover gunning for a hat trick in the number one spot.

4 comments:

Julie said...

Great, I really want to see this. I heard somewhere that part of its surprise hitness was that women were flocking to the theater. And I have to admit, the commercials really did appeal to me. Now I can drag Octo along.

JPX said...

It's really funny and the end credits are an instant classic.

Octopunk said...

Yeah, for some reason I'm resistant to seeing this movie, although I don't have doubts about it being funny. I think Ed Helms's missing tooth is grossing me out.

JPX said...

The missing tooth is a very funny part of the film. Apparently he actually removed the tooth for the role (it was a denture). I went into this film knowing zero about it and I was surprised by how funny it was. It's totally worth your time.

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