Box Office - 'The Proposal' Takes In $34 Million

The Hangover did better than expected this weekend, but still couldn't manage a third straight victory at the box office. Instead, Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds both achieved career bests with the opening of their romantic comedy, The Proposal. Barring his supporting role in Wolverine, Reynolds had never had a $30 million-plus weekend, and had only eclipsed $20 million once, with The Amityville Horror. Bullock had never seen a $20 million start for any movie in her entire career, even Speed. This weekend was different, though. The Proposal earned a very strong $34 million according to new estimates from Box Office Mojo, easily winning the top spot. That's the best opening weekend for a romantic comedy since Sex and the City, which is almost an unfair comparison given that film's history. Discarding that, you'd have to go back to Enchanted to find a romantic comedy in the $30 - $35 million range. The Hangover earned $26 million - still a tremendous amount of money for a movie in its third weekend - and that pushed it over the $150 million mark. Only three comedies have done more business in three weeks: Meet the Fockers, Bruce Almighty, and the third Austin Powers movie. Really astonishing performance by this film. Up is closing in on the Pixar record books. It hauled in another $21 million this weekend to be within a hair's breadth of $225 million. Within a week, it will be the summer's biggest movie. But also within a week, the real biggest movie of the summer will open, so all bets are off there. The other new release was Year One, which could only manage $20 million, and is already likely dead in the water. It's not as good as The Hangover, it aims younger, which plays right into the Transformers crowd, and it didn't make much of an impact this weekend. I think we'll see a 60 - 65% drop in business next week and then it'll pretty much be over for this one. What they spent $60 million on I have no idea, but it won't get there on U.S. receipts alone. The Top Five:
1 - The Proposal ($34.1 million)
2 - The Hangover ($26.8 million)
3 - Up ($21.3 million)
4 - Year One ($20.2 million)
5 - Pelham 123 ($11.3 million)

Comments

[Josh]

While I'm definitely not a big rom-com fan, I'm kinda glad to see Ryan Reynolds start to put up some box office numbers.