Opening Day: `Up’ flies to $21.4 million, `Hell’ digs in for $6.4 million

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‘Up,’ the latest from Disney/Pixar, sailed to $21.4 million at the box office on Friday. That’s just under the $23.2 million that the last Pixar flick -- ‘Wall-E’ -- took in on its opening day last year en route to a $63 million first weekend.

The strong Friday means ‘Up’ will definitely finish its first weekend looking more like ‘Wall-E’ than Pixar’s ‘Ratatouille,’ which opened at $47 million. There were projections that ‘Up’ could hit as high as $65 million this weekend, but those might be a tad too optimistic. A safer bet would be between $57 million to $60 million. Hardly numbers to sneeze at, however.

The other major movie opening of the weekend, director Sam Raimi’s finance-themed horror film ‘Drag Me to Hell’ posted $6.4 million on Friday, which puts it on pace for a respectable $17.5 million, but below industry estimates that pegged it generating $20 million. Last year’s horror picture ‘The Strangers’ opened at $21 million.

-- Joe Flint