Opening day: ‘Hangover’ on top again, ‘Imagine That’ bombing

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

‘The Hangover’ easily beat both new movies that opened Friday and will top the box office again this weekend with a gross between $30 million and $35 million.

Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ Vegas-gone-wrong film grossed $10.4 million, down 38% from its opening day last week. But if it follows the pattern of other successful R-rated comedies such as ‘Wedding Crashers,’ it will see even smaller drops today and Sunday and end up down less than 30% for its second weekend. ‘Hangover’s’ total domestic gross will surpass $100 million Sunday, a remarkable feat for a film that cost only $35 million to produce and about $40 million to market.

Sony Pictures opened its remake of ‘The Taking of Pelham 123,’ which it co-financed with Relativity Media, to $8.3 million Friday. The John Travolta and Denzel Washington thriller is on its way to a so-so debut in the mid-$20 million.

The weekend’s other new movie is turning out to be a total flop. Paramount’s ‘Imagine That’ earned just $1.8 million on its opening day, meaning the Eddie Murphy family comedy will earn around $5 million through Sunday.

Disney and Pixar’s ‘Up’ is staying strong. As expected, it came in No. 2 on Friday with $8.8 million, down only 33% from last week. It will probably sell about $30 million worth of tickets on its third weekend.

‘Land of the Lost’ grossed $2.9 million Friday and will probably sell close to $10 million worth of tickets. That’s a respectable second weekend decline of about 50%, but won’t provide much comfort to Universal and Relativity after the Will Ferrell vehicle’s disastrous $18.8-million opening weekend.

All grosses were reported by the films’ respective studios.

-- Ben Fritz