Box Office Report: ‘Hangover’ Delivers for a Second Weekend; UP Stays Close Behind

For the second weekend in a row The Hangover has taken audiences on the ultimate drunken bender. The Vegas bachelor party comedy dropped only 25% in its second week of release bringing in another $33.4 million. This puts the sleeper hit of the summer at $105 million and counting. At this rate, The Hangover will be a major competitor for one of the top hits of the summer. I would expect around a $200 million finish which is surely much higher than even the most generous predictions. Close behind our trio of drunken buddies was Pixar’s animated film Up which in its third weekend out took in $30.5 million for a number two finish. Up is on the course to pass last summer’s WALL -E which ended its run with around $227 million total. Up currently stands at $187 million and is still flying high.

Two major movies were released this weekend. The first was Denzel Washington and John Travolta’s hijack thriller The Taking of Pelham 123. Pelham took the number three spot this weekend with a respectable $25 million. The R rated action flick brought in what most anticipated. The reviews for the Tony Scott directed movie were rather weak. Check out our full review of the film here. The star power of Pelham brought moviegoers to the theaters, but I doubt this film will hold on well in the coming weeks.

The other release this weekend was the Eddie Murphy kids comedy Imagine That. Murphy, as of lately, has made a career out of making bad movies that nobody watches ( I guess that is better than bad movies that everyone watches, right?) Anyways, Imagine That tanked at the box office as it only manage to make $5.7 million for a six place finish. On the bright side, that is a higher opening than Murphy’s last film, Meet Dave, which only hit $5.2 million its opening weekend last summer. I have no idea why Murphy continues to make these movies. If he hasn’t already, he really needs to fire his agent.

The rest of the weekend box office looked like this:

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian held on for a number four finish and another $9.6 million in the bank. It currently stands at $143.4 million since its release Memorial Day weekend. The number five spot went to Will Ferrell’s Land of the Lost which dropped 50% in week number two only making $9.1 million. After two weeks out it has only mustered up $34.9 million (about what The Hangover made this weekend in week number two of release.)

Next weekend will see the arrival of Jack Black and Michael Cera in Year One as well as Sandra Bullock in The Proposal. Then a few days after that is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen which we all know will put all these low opening numbers to shame.

Box Office numbers courtesy of Box Office Mojo