Opening Day: ‘Hangover’ chugs $16.5 million, drinking Ferrell’s ‘Lost’ under the table; ‘Up’ still floating

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

How do you spell sequel?

Warner Bros. can pop open the good stuff. Its raunchy comedy ‘The Hangover’ drank its way to the top spot, taking in $16.5 million on Friday. A strong second wind should propel it to an opening weekend well north of $40 million, with some estimates have it chug-a-lugging as much as $50 million before it passes out in first place Sunday night.Yes, we’re going to work in as many drinking metaphors as we can.

‘The Hangover,’ which has no big stars (except for Mike Tyson’s knockout appearance) is drawing both men and women despite its somewhat crude content. Strong reviews and a well-crafted marketing campaign made its R-rating a nonfactor at the ticket window, although even the most optimistic Warner Bros. executive must be surprised by how strong it opened.

Disney/Pixar’s ‘Up’ should be a strong second. It took in $13.4 million on Friday, a modest drop of only 39% from last Friday’s open of $21.4 million. ‘Up’ should take in about $45 million in its second weekend. Overall, ‘Up’ has taken in $106.2 million.

While Warner Bros. and Disney/Pixar are feeling no pain, Universal Pictures must really be the one with a wicked hangover. Will Ferrell’s ‘Land of the Lost’ opened to just $7.2 million and may be lucky to crack $20 million on the way to third place, nowhere near the $30 million Universal was likely hoping for and that some tracking ‘experts’ had projected. The movie cost more than $100 million to produce, qualifying it for the distinction of becoming the summer’ first big flop. The poorly reviewed comedy, a remake of the old television series, was not able to bring in Ferrell’s base audience of young men (who were flocking to ‘The Hangover’ instead) and failed to attract kids. The movie certainly didn’t suffer from a lack of promotion. It seemed impossible to channel surf in the past few days and not stumble on Ferrell doing his shtick somewhere.

--Joe Flint