It's Funny Because He's Fat!
By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Box Office Round-Ups | Comments (25)
It was a fairly uneventful weekend at the box-office, as two holdovers managed to maintain the top two spots of the week. After the final numbers came in last week, The Hangover had managed to barely eke out a win over Up. This week, their positions stayed the same: The Hangover added another $33 million to its total take, bringing it to $105 million in 10 days. It’ll be the year’s biggest R-Rated film by end of business Monday, surpassing The Watchmen’s $107 million. I think it’s also fair to say, if there’s such a thing anymore, that The Hangover is the year’s biggest sleeper hit.
Up on the other hand, is shaping up to be quite likely the biggest movie of the year, and like last year’s The Dark Knight, it deserves it. I love it when we get the amazing confluence of critical and box-office success. After only three weeks, Up is already approaching $200 million, and given the dearth of broad family-friendly movies this summer, it has a very good chance of surpassing Star Trek, which is the number one film of the year so far, at $232 million (it’s finally slowing, adding only $5.5 million this last weekend).
In third place, Denzel Washington’s The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 put up respectable numbers for an adult-targeted film, grossing a decent $25 million. Sony head, Rory Bruer insist he’s pleased with the opening. “Third place and happy about it,” he said. Uh huh.
Well, we know who’s not happy about a sixth place opening, and that’s Eddie Murphy, whose family film, Imagine That, despite reviews that were not atrocious, only eked about $5.6 million, in line with the debut of last summer’s Eddie Murphy flick, Meet Dave, which opened with $5.1 million. I suppose we all know what that means: Norbit sequel. Either that, or Murphy best jump on that Beverly Hills Cop sequel before he loses all of his box-office clout.
Our review of Imagine That will be up later today.
Meanwhile, in limited release, Francis Ford Coppolla’s Tetro put up a solid $15,000 per screen average, though reviews are mixed, and I’m not sure we get paid enough to review a Vincent Gallo black-and-white film. We’ll see. However, Sam Rockwell’s Moon put up even better numbers in more theaters, averaging $18,000 per screen. We’ll have that review up later today. Likewise, Food, Inc., a documentary about the corporate-controlled food industry, put up a big $21,000 per screen. We’ll have that review later this week.
Here are your top five:
1. The Hangover ($33 million, $105 million)
2. Up ($30 million, $187 million)
3. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 ($25 million)
4. Night at the Museum II< (9.6 million, $143 million)
5. Land of the Lost ($9.1 million, $34 million)
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Comments
Posted by: Spender at June 15, 2009 12:40 AM
The Hangover was fun, funny and deserving of it's box office take.