Re: 2009 at the Box Office
Weekend Estimates
#1 "The Hangover" $33.4 million ($105.4 million) -26%
#2 "Up" $30.5 million ($187.2 million) -31%
#3 "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" $25.0 million
#4 "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" $9.6 million ($143.4 million) -34%
#5 "Land of the Lost" $9.2 million ($35.0 million) -51%
#6 "Imagine That" $5.7 million
#7 "Star Trek" $5.6 million ($232.0 million) -33%
#8 "Terminator Salvation" $4.7 million ($113.8 million) -43%
#9 "Angels & Demons" $4.2 million ($123.3 million) -36%
#10 "Drag Me to Hell" $3.9 million ($35.1 million) -45%
#11 "My Life in Ruins" $1.7 million ($6.4 million) -47%
#12 "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" $915K ($176.1 million) -53%
The top 12 pulled in $134.4 million this weekend, representing a 24% dip from last year, but about 1% stronger than this frame in '07. 2009's staggering year-to-date domestic gross now stands at $4.589 billion, representing an 11% increase from last year ($4.147 billion), up 12% over '07 ($4.086 billion), 17% stronger than '06 ($3.911 billion), and a 22% increase compared to '05 ($3.771 billion). Overall, 2009's admission sales have been the strongest the industry has enjoyed since 2004. '09 is on pace to definitely be a year for the record books.
WB has a legit blockbuster in the making as their comedy "The Hangover" retained the top spot at the box office as it took only a 26% decline from its opening numbers last week. After ten days in theaters, the movie has so far earned $105.4 million and looks headed for a final domestic mark north of the $200 million plateau. "The Hangover" became only the third release of '09 to repeat as the nation's top box office draw, joining "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" and "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail".
"The Hangover" also marked the fourth fastest time a movie carrying an R rating reached the century mark, tying the ten days it took "Hannibal" to pass that amount. Only "The Matrix Reloaded" (3 days), "The Passion of the Christ" (5 days), and "300" (8 days) did it faster. Last summer's hit "Sex & the City" ($152.6 million) took 11 days to reach $100 mil. At a cost of only $35 million, "The Hangover" is going to end up becoming one of the most profitable releases of '09.
Pixar/Disney's "Up" once again finished in the second slot as it was off by only 31%. The animated flick has so far tallied more than $187 million, about $25 million more than what "Wall-E" had earned after the same amount of time in theaters. "Up" also became only the ninth film in history to earn more than $30 million in each of its first three weekends of business. Overall, its the tenth to have three weekends of $30 million-plus business because "Titanic" earned at least $30 mil during its second, third, and fifth frames in theaters. As reported last week, "Up" is going to end up becoming one of the most successful animated movies in history.
Sony's "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" got off to a very good start as it debuted with $25 million. The opening gave director Tony Scott the biggest (non-inflation adjusted) launch of his career. For stars Denzel Washington and John Travolta, the $25 million haul gave them the third (behind "American Gangster" and "Inside Man") and fourth (trailing "Wild Hogs", "Hairspray", and "Bolt") best opening numbers of their respective careers. 'Pelham' opened on target with studio expectations as it pulled in a solid per-theater average of $8,133 from its 3,074 locations, which was the second best (behind 'Hangover') of the top 12. Based on strong exit polling, the studio is expecting a very leggy run from this one.
Fox's "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" has now taken in $143.4 million. Universal's "Land of the Lost" fell off by 51% and has now earned $35 million. At a cost of more than $100 million, 'Lost' is fading fast and will end up being one of the year's costliest box office bombs.
Paramount's "Imagine That" didn't drum up much interest as it was only able to debut with under $6 million, giving it a dismal average of $1,895 from its 3,008 theaters. With last year's disaster "Meet Dave", "Imagine That" will make it back-to-back flops for star Eddie Murphy. Still, out of the 35 films the actor has headlined, only nine of them (counting 'Imagine') became flops. Before 'Dave' and 'Imagine', Murphy's previous six films were all big hits, despite in large part being panned by most critics.
Paramount's "Star Trek" has now tallied $232 million. WB/Sony's "Terminator Salvation" is currently sitting on a domestic haul of just under $114 million. Sony's "Angels & Demons" has so far earned $123.3 million. Universal's "Drag Me to Hell" cracked the $35 million mark this week. Fox Searchlight's "My Life in Ruins" has only been able to manage $6.4 million since opening last weekend. Fox's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" rounds out the top 12 as it saw its domestic mark climb to just over $176 million.
Next week will see a pair of comedies attempt to topple "The Hangover". Disney's "The Proposal" and Sony's "Year One" will both hit theaters. It'll be very interesting to see if either has enough juice to snag the top spot next weekend.
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