I Didn't Know They Gave Out Rings at the Holocaust.
By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Box Office Round-Ups | Comments (36)
There were a few good surprises in the box-office over the weekend. First of all, Pixar’s Up held on to the top spot, bringing in a better than expected $44 million with an almost unheard of small 35 percent drop since its opening weekend. After two weekends, Up has already grossed $137 million. Plus, $44 million is the best second weekend of the year.
Even better: The Hangover, an R-rated comedy, actually pulled in at number two, barely losing out to Up, grossing $43 million. That number represents the 15th biggest opening, all time, for an R-Rated movie, but it’s the second biggest opening all time for an R-Rated comedy (behind American Pie 2). And believe it or not, in a rarity for summer blockbuster movies, analysts are actually suggesting that good reviews helped The Hangover do as well as it did. Unfortunately, we haven’t posted ours yet. There’s a very good reason for that. The Boozehound went and saw it on Friday night and, it was so good that he drained two flasks and had to resort to the emergency flask he keeps in his sock. He blacked out for two days. His wife finally found him in a San Francisco theater late last night mumbling something about Zach Galifianakis’ penis. We’ll have his review up this afternoon.
But my favorite surprise of the weekend? The dismal performance of Will Ferrell’s Land of the Lost. Ha ha! With a $100 million budget, Will Ferrell and Danny McBride, and somewhat well known source material, the movie couldn’t even break $20 million, which is less than what even Lost in Space starring Matt LeBlanc opened with. Could this possibly be the end of Will Ferrell’s reign of terror? Will he finally be forced to update his shtick? As of right now, he’s got quite a few projects in development, but none of them have started filming yet (including he and Sacha Cohen Baron’s Sherlock Holmes movie). At the very least, it’s going to be another year before we see Ferrell in theaters again.
Nia Vardalos’ attempts, once again, to capitalize on the success of 2002’s My Big Fat Greek Wedding, failed once again. My Life in Ruins grossed only $3.2 million. We’ll have that review up tomorrow. And in limited release, Sam Mendes’ Away We Go (written by Dave Eggers and hsi wife, Vendela Vida) was the big winner among indies, scoring a whopping $35,000 per screen average, compared to The Hangover’s $13,000 average. We’ll have that review up today after The Hangover.
Here’s your top five:
1. Up ($44 million; $137 million)
2. The Hangover ($43 million)
3. Land of the Lost ($19 million)
4. Night of the Museum II ($14 million; $127 million)
5. Star Trek ($8.5 million; $222 million)
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Comments
Posted by: UncleJR at June 8, 2009 9:41 AM
Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen in Sherlock Holmes?
Noooooooooooooo!
Is that the sound of hoofbeats I hear?
Basil Rathbone is spinning in his grave! As is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle!
Hopefully the dismal returns on Land of the Lost will wake somebody in Hollywood up and realize that Will Ferrell's gravy train has derailed about 5 movies ago!
Best news I've heard in quite some time!