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‘Hangover’ keeps partying Sunday, signaling a strong run ahead

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As if crushing expectations and more than doubling the gross of the weekend’s other new release wasn’t victory enough, ‘The Hangover’ is officially No. 1 for the weekend now that final box office grosses for Sunday have been calculated.

It’s rare that studios significantly underestimate their weekend grosses on Sunday morning. But ‘The Hangover’ has risen from a $43.3-million estimate in ticket sales to an official tally of $45 million, according to Warner Bros. Using a model based on similar films that opened at similar times in the past, Warner estimated yesterday morning that the movie would make $11.9 million on Sunday, traditionally not a strong day for R-rated comedies. But the actual figure was $13.6 million.

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Beating the model is a sign that ‘The Hangover’ likely has a lot more life left in it. If it records modest drops in box office over the next few weekends, the $35-million movie could see a final domestic gross of more than $150 million.

The last movie to significantly outperform its Sunday estimate was ‘Star Trek.’ It has gone on to almost triple its $75 million opening over the past four-plus weeks, and will likely end up earning more than $250 million, domestically.

The final gross for Disney and Pixar’s ‘Up’ was down just a bit from its Sunday estimate, $44.1 million instead of $44.2 million.

But the news only got worse for Universal’s ‘Land of the Lost.’ The $19.5-million estimate for the $100-million event film’s opening weekend seemed like bomb enough. But the final gross was actually just $18.8 million, according to the studio.

--Ben Fritz

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