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SUNDAY PM/MONDAY AM UPDATE: Box Office Cliffhanger: Sunday Numbers Show ‘The Hangover’ Caught ‘Up’ For #1
SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM: Some of the fun of summer box office reporting is that, every now and then, a low-brow sleeper comes out of nowhere and challenges for the No. 1 film crown during a weekend. “I guess there’s no reason to do this if sometimes crazy things don’t happen,” marveled one rival studio exec. At first, Friday’s domestic grosses indicated that Warner Bros’ well reviewed Bachelor Party goes wrong comedy The Hangover might top Pixar/Disney’s Up after opening for $16.5M from 3,269 theaters. Then on Saturday, the R-rated laffer slid to $14.8M Saturday for a $43.3M weekend with Sunday’s estimate of $12M. That’s without stars, too. Instead, credit a hot concept (directed by Old School helmer Todd Phillips) and marketing plan combining word-of-mouth with heavy TV ad rotation. It was the 3rd best R-rated comedy opening ever.
Instead, The Hangover finished No. 2 and Pixar CGI toon Up, because of this four-quadrant pic’s usual Saturday crowded matinees for kiddies repeated as No. 1 with an impressive hold around -35%. Up was a strong No. 2 Friday with $13.1M from 3,818 plays, then jumped to #1 by adding $17.8M Saturday and an estimated $13.3M Sunday for a $44.2M weekend. Pixar’s 10th straight smash, Up will post a $137.3M cume, so that’s two success stories this weekend.
Universal told me its expensive Land Of The Lost needed to debut with at least $30M for the studio not to sweat. In 3rd place, it’s now officially one of the first turkeys of the summer. (Because aren’t dinosaurs related to birds?) Land Of The Lost opened Friday a distant 3rd with just $7.1M from 3,521 runs sliding to $7M Saturday for just a $19.5M weekend. That’s unusually low for a Will Ferrell summer comedy, but this one received dismal reviews. Still, how typically Hollywood that rival studios are taking obvious enjoyment in Universal’s distress, especially on the heels of its recent underperforming thriller State Of Play and last week’s disappointing grosses for the Drag Me To Hell horror flick. But this is a cyclical biz. Last summer, Fox struggled.
But this time around 20th Century Fox will be enjoying the $127.3M cume for its sequel reteaming Ben Stiller Owen Wilson, Robin Williams with director Shawn Levy. Night Of The Museum 2: Battle Of The Smithsonian pulled in another $14.6M from 3,807 theaters this weekend for 4th place.
Paramount’s Star Trek took in $8.4M from 3,202 dates for 5th place with a hefty $222.8M cume.
Warner Bros’ Terminator Salvation made $8.1M from 3,403 plays for #6 and a cume of $105.4M. Overseas, it took in $67.5 million this frame, and the sci-fi action film was #1 in 66 of 70 markets and is the #1 grossing title of this weekend overseas. Sony acquired the rights to most foreign territories. The foreign cume is now $97.2M. Overall, T4 is currently pacing 21% higher than T3 in comparable territories at this stage in that film’s release.
Universal’s Drag Me To Hell earned $7.3M (-54% from its opening a week ago) from 2,510 dates – sinking to #7 with a cume of $28.5M.
Imagine/Sony’s Angels & Demons did $6.5M from 2,925 theaters in the 8th spot for a new North American cume of $116.1M. The pic also crossed the $400M mark this weekend and became the No. 1 grossing global hit released to date this year. Of it’s $409M, Angels & Demons has generated $292.9M in the international marketplace, including $22.2M this weekend from overseas. Best performing territories for the film include the United States, Germany, Japan, Italy, UK and Russia. “No one ever expected to replicate the success of Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code, which was a cultural phenomenon. But for his sequel to hit $400+M and continue climbing is really quite an achievement,” Sony gushed.
No. 9 was that big fat hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding writer/star Nia Vardalos’s new Fox Searchlight romantic comedy My Life In Ruins which debuted with $3.2M from only 1,164 venues. And, rounding out the Top 10, Paramount’s spoof Dance Flick earned $2M from 1,707 locations bringing its cume to $22.6M.
Among other openers, Focus Features’ Away We Go debuted in 4 theaters to gross $143K. A young adult audience drove box office and sold out the late night screens.
Overall, this weekend’s total movie grosses of $164M lagged last year’s big $174.6M box office by -6.1%.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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The Hangover.
Thinking it would do better than 50! Audiences are eating it up, word of mouth is going to be huge. Kudos to Garelick and Philips.
The WGA failed you guys. The brother-in-law, Tyson & the tiger. The baby. The cop car! You guys were robbed.
Land of the Lost.
Isn’t this the film that Will Ferrell decided didn’t need a screenplay during the strike? They’d just ad lib?
Wise move. Who needs writers. Will’s a comic genius.
Not so much, hey Universal? Suck it!
You deserve this one.
Was Donna Langley involved?
If so, maybe it’s time she’s put to pasture.
Nice lady, but how many times are they going to give her a pass?
I’ve been saying it over and over, why in the world did they take the KIDS out of Land of the Lost?!?!? Who did these people think were going to want to watch this movie, adults? It’s kids who like dinosaur movies. And I think it was a huge mistake to turn it into a dumb comedy. While it was quite cheesy, the original Land of the Lost was also weird and creepy and that’s what made it awesome. They’ve killed this mythology by dumbing it down and taking the kids out of it.
MY LIFE WAS in RUINS last night after watching this so-called comedy. Nia Vardalos, irritating beyond belief and sad to see the once-great Richard Dreyfuss playing a fat, balding, unfunny widower. Everything sucked, even the great locations couldn’t save this turkey. Had to flee the theater halfway through.
SPOILER ALERT: On to EASY VIRTUE, a Noel Coweard piffle, with a luscious Jessica Biel (must rent POWDER BLUE!) and a witty Colin Firth. However, the film was stolen by the Butler; he did it.
Up could still be number 1. Family films tend to do a lot better on weekends. R rated films like the Hangover tend have less of a increase with the weekends. Since there’s only a 3M difference in the Friday figures, I’m betting Up will end up on top.
Original Product > Remakes of things people never cared that much about in the first place.
Nikki -typically Hollywood to revel in failure unless you do it, in which case it’s justice.
Was it the marketing of “Land of the Lost” or the freefalling appeal of Will Ferrell that led to the dismal BO opening?
Really, how much more of the hamming, obnoxiously loutish persona that Ferrell almost always portrays can movie audiences want?
As for “The Hangover”, I’m both delighted and disconcerted by its success. 1) It shows, once again, that A-listers’ importance is grossly inflated. I don’t think a bulk of the audience came from those who read the glowing multipage profile of Zack Galafinakis in last Sunday’s New York Times and bought tix. At the end of the day, writing and story are of paramount importance. Oh, and that marketing job was A-1. But 2)based on the reviews, it seems to follow the formula that’s become de rigueur for today’s comedies: let’s make it as vulgar as possible for the first 2/3 and then make it sugary sweet in the last 1/3 so that people are reminded that love and friendship are all that matter. Awwwwwwww. I guess this softens the blow for the female/gelded male demographic. I blame Judd Apatow for this trend. I know this makes $$$$, but I just wish comedy would remain subversive and sardonic all the way through.
Alas, I’ll see The Hangover with the knowledge that cloying sentimentalism will take up the last 30 minutes.
Judging from the artwork, MY LIFE IN RUINS is supposed to bring in $ 600+ mios – like MAMMA MIA! Is that why the artwork looks nearly identical? It was fresh the first time around, now it’s just shocking to look at it and think Rip-Off! Or do we now need to recycle stuff from previous prods?
Perhaps the people who’ve seen any one (or both) of WILL FERRELL’s last two movies don’t feel the need to rush out and repeat that experience. Dinosaurs or not. BLADES OF GLORY was the last truly enjoyable movie I’ve seen him in. Feels like that was eons ago.
I’m confused. Up’s total gross as of Thursday is 93 mil. If it does gross 45 mil this weekend (and end up topping The Hangover which I think it might), it will end up with closer to 140 mil, not 120, which would make it on track with the biggest Pixar hit, Finding Nemo. Also helping Up’s grosses- when I saw the Hangover last night, so many kids were buying tickets to Up and sneaking into the R-rated Hangover.
German B, Terminator Salvation may do better overseas, but Warner Bros only owns this film’s North America rights.
That is the difference between doing or not doing publicity…. WB did a huge junket to promote The Hangover, every one saw a good movie and told the audience…. Land of the Lost… well nobody knew about it!!!!
Major props to Will Ferrell manager and Land O’ The Lost Producer Jimmy Miller for putting another nail in Will’s coffin with this “turkey.” I know Will’s had a few others too… Bewitched, Semi-Pro, The Producers, Kicking and Screaming and Stepbrothers.
I know more people who wanna see LAND OF THE LOST because of upcomer Danny McBride then star Will…
Ferrell is a great guy, he deserves better, Jimmmy. It’s time to invite longtime partner Eric Gold back into the fold. YOU need him. The CLIENTS do too.
You know how all those studio execs flock to Comic-Con every summer in order to connect with the hip and happening fanboys and girls? If they’d been paying attention last summer, they would have known that Land of the Lost was going to bomb. There was a panel with Will participating remotely and he was bombing badly with his shtick. Nobody was laughing. (This was a crowd that would soon be rolling in the aisles for Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen ad libbing hilariously and filthily.) There is nothing as profound as the sound of silence when you’re pimping your big summer comedy. Didn’t surprise me how it all turned out. But then, I’m not a studio exec.
Drag Me to Hell…dead in the water!?!
There is no justice. Shame on humanity for not making this a hit. I know, I know…cult following, dvd sales, overseas grosses, blah blah blah…none of that is a consolation for me this time. This was the very definition of a crowd pleaser, and if its gross was proportionate to its quality, it would’ve made 100 million domestically.
I’m sure Saw 12 will gross eight hundred gazillion dollars, though, and afterwards all the people who missed out on DMTH will whine about how no good horror movies are released theatrically anymore.
It looks more like $45m for UP this weekend followed by THE HANGOVER with about $43.5m LAND OF THE LOST at $20m
Congrats to Pixar on an amazing second week as Up will most surely pass Star Trek to become the biggest film of the summer so far (until Transformers of course).
I still think “Up” may have a shot at being #1 for the second weekend in a row. Saturday and Sunday matinees will be the decisive factor here. IMO Up will win Sat & Sun over Hangover. If I’m wrong, then I’ll be happy as Hangover was hilarious and deserves the success it’s getting. And YAY for another Will Ferrell disaster. I can’t stand his “comic” persona.
I know I’m wrong, but I don’t remember seeing such repulsively heavy promotion, complete with abashed Sid and Marty Kroft buttkissing and gushing over how ” faithful this movie is to the original,” which was a clear crock to anyone who saw tjhe smarmy promos. WF is fine guest-hosting SNL, but is unwatchable in any other venue so far.
I can’t recall any movie being so repulsively, heavily promoted as Land of the Lost. The worst was poor old Sid and Marty Kroft, arms twisted behind backs, gushing about how faithful the movie was to the TV show. WF is ok when guest-hosting SNL, but aside from that is unwatchable, so far. And I also hope Up ends up beating the latest in the long line of vulgar brain-dead comedies, but two wishes granted is one too many.
I saw LotL last night and thought it was really funny, but the humour wasn’t coming from the big budget and special effects but rather the interplay between Ferrell and Danny McBride. The script should’ve had a complete rewrite, dropping the remake premise and the kiddie baggage that brings. Done differently with original characters and untied from its predecessor, it could’ve been on a par with Anchorman or Old School because the chemistry with the cast and the comedic talent is obviously there… but it ends up only slightly funnier than Blades of Glory.
FD4 needs to stay on that date because of scheduling considerations for 3D, available screens and how many weeks before the next 3D release.
H2 doesn’t have the same restrictions. It should move. Besides, when I saw THE HANGOVER last night, the audience I saw responded hugely to the FD4 trailer.
The Weinsteins should find a weekend where they’re the only horror game in town and not leave any money on the table.
has hollywood learned its lesson yet? i love will farrell, but he does NOT work in wildly experimental adaptations of old tv shows. not at ALL.
if they had been even a bit more faithful to the original land of the lost, it would’ve been a hit. they could have cast a zac efron-type as the teenage son to appeal to girls (who must’ve stayed away from this film like the plague). even my mother, who loved the old show and was excited about the film when they heard they were making it, was horrified when she saw in the trailer that a fat ugly man was playing will. danny mcbride is cool and funny, but he is no teen idol.
be faithful, hollywood! you’re adapting source materials for a reason: because people liked the originals so much.
The Hangover is “high-concept” comedy? Please tell me you’re being facetious, NF. It’s a movie about vulgar idiots getting blackout drunk at a Vegas bachelor party. It’s succeeded because it pandered to the lowest common denominator – namely, jock douche-bags with awful taste in film and comedy. Real high-concept comedies that have actual wit and are character-driven generally struggle to find an audience in their initial release because they don’t lend themselves to moron-friendly advertising. The critics only praised this because they want to look hip by being on the bandwagon for the alleged hot crowd-pleasing sleeper of the season.
The frustrating thing about this blog is that it always…ALWAYS equates first-weekend financial success with quality or ingenuity. I keep reading anyway, though, because I like NF’s no-holds-barred style. And I love to read the comments where the dumbassery never ceases to amaze me.
I watched T1 last night, and I was able to understand T4 a lot better. T4 is not masterpience but it’s better than Star Trek and Wolverine, and those two movies were not bad either. Giver Terminator 4 a chance.
Hangover word of mouth???
I haven’t seen so many TV spots for a movie in 10 years.
…saw Drag Me To Hell last night for the 2nd time.
probably see DMTH 3 times before it leaves. IT IS A CLASSIC.
just a perfect flick. catch it while you can folks.
cheers!