Upon Further Review, 'The Hangover' Wins Weekend

We cautioned you that this would be possible, since we were dealing with estimates yesterday instead of the actual tickets sold, and as it happens, The Hangover is the new number one movie in America. The estimates showed Up taking its second weekend by about a million dollars, but the actuals, just released by The Numbers, paint a different picture: Up earned $44,138,266 from Friday to Sunday and The Hangover picked up $44,979,319. Estimates are exactly that, and usually, what's reported on Sunday shifts a little bit. However, rarely do you get the top two movies separated by such a small amount, so the fluctuations don't mean a whole lot in most cases. If somebody would've told you even a month ago that an R-rated comedy that gets most of its mileage from a missing tooth and Zach Galifianakis would make $45 million in three days, you would have had that person committed. But we thought because Warner Bros. has already ordered a sequel and because June is usually a lighter month for business than May or July that The Hangover had a realistic shot to be the biggest comedy of the summer. The daily holds this weekend and the lack of competition in that specific genre over the next few weeks indicates a really strong month of June for The Hangover. Year One is the only adult comedy heading our way soon, but they fought hard to secure a PG-13 rating. Incidentally, movies that are PG-13 this summer but should be something else are all disappointments: Terminator and Drag Me to Hell should have been rated R and Land of the Lost would have been better served with a PG rating. So we'll see what Year One can muster. Don't feel bad for Up, though; $44 million in a second weekend is fantastic. However...Land of the Lost dropped to below $19 million in the final analysis. That is unequivocally bad for a movie with that much to lose.

Comments

[NIronwolf]

Score one for the grown ups!

[MRPigg]

I had very little interest in The Hangover, but positive word of mouth dragged me in. I am glad I saw it and I am happy for it's success, however I did not like it as much as some. Tropic Thunder is still in my book the funniest film of the last few years.

I don't know if the rating kept people away from Raimi's brilliant horror flick, but for all those PG13-horror hating skeptics (including myself) out there who don't already know: Drag Me To Hell should have been rated R as is in it's current theatrical cut form. I am shocked at the boundaries being stretched by the PG13 rating all across the board.

[Get The Big Picture]

They should have done what Slumdog did and cover a kid in shit instead of having blood spew all over David Paymer. That would've gotten the R.

[Hastor]

I think comparing it to Tropic Thunder is a bit unfair, I'd like to see what The Hangover could have done with the $95 million Tropic Thunder had vs the $35 million that The Hangover cost. Plus they are just different types of comedy. Don't get me wrong, I loved Tropic Thunder, but an all-star cast with a ton of money can do a lot of things a smaller movie with no big names can't. They both made me laugh plenty, probably The Hangover a tad more just because I'm a big fan of Zach from his standup and appearances on Tim and Eric.