'Up' and 'The Hangover' Prime to Battle for #1 Slot While 'Land of the Lost' Can't be Found
Looks like the comedy battle wasn't much of a battle
Friday box-office estimates are in and it doesn't look good for Universal's Land of the Lost and I expect word-of-mouth won't help it over the weekend as trailers that promised a G-rated family affair don't exactly allude to what is offered in the rather crass PG-13 comedy. However, happier times are being had at Warner Bros. where The Hangover opened in the #1 slot Friday to the tune of $16.5 million followed by Disney/Pixar's carryover Up at $13.5 million making for a race to the finish.
In all likelihood Up will close the gap and I would assume takeover The Hangover for a second weekend win thanks to matinee showings feeding its weekend tally. However, both films should end around $40-45 million making Warner Bros., Disney and Pixar all happy campers.
Land of the Lost currently sits in third with a $7.2 million take and what will probably end up as a $20 million weekend. Considering the $100+ million budget the film is carrying it looks like the Will Ferrell laffer will be considered the first box-office bust of 2009.
Fox Searchlight's My Life in Ruins is the weekend's other semi-wide release in 1,164 theaters and it managed $1.1 million on Friday, which will probably take it to $3.5 million or so for the weekend.
Listed below are the complete Friday estimates and Laremy will be here tomorrow with complete results and recap.
- The Hangover – $16.5 million
- Up – $13.5 million
- Land of the Lost – $7.2 million
- Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian – $4.5 million
- Drag Me To Hell – $2.57 million
- Terminator Salvation – $2.53 million
- Star Trek – $2.52 million
- Angels and Demons – $2.50 million
- My Life in Ruins – $2.0 million
- Dance Flick – $685,000
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HANGOVER rocks! I'm really happy this one blew away expectations. I saw a pre-screening on Thursday and was delighted, like Brad. The buzz (and reviews) were fantastic, and positive word-of-mouth will continue to make this one laugh all the way to the bank.
Hangover should and probably will become a classic comedy film in years to come. It is absolutely hilarious! On the other hand, Land of the Lost is a dreadful film that never should have been made. I was very disappointed in this film. I knew it would be bad, but I did not expect it to be this bad!
My weekend predictions based on the Friday estimates, just for fun. I think people will hear about Hangover all weekend, and continue to hit the theaters.
HANGOVER – $46 mil.
UP – $45 mil.
LAND OF THE LOST – $22 mil.
WOW. Looks like my instincts were right. Check out my last-minute updated predictions in Laremy's box office prediction column. I swear I posted them before any Friday estimates came in.
Personally I think The Hangover is this year's Wedding Crashers, big opening and EXTRAORDINARY legs. I even think that it could win next week number #1 slot. Because The Taking of Pelham doesn't look so good and not many people will say it because it's rated R. Pelham will do just like Inside Man, 20 – 28 opening. Even if Hangover doesn't take next weekend top prize it will surely be bigger than Pelham.
We might not know who really is no.1 until monday afternoon when the actual tally is released. I'm thinking UP will still be no.1 due to family films doing most of their damage on Sat and Sun. Hangover may overestimate to 50mil in order to get the headline of being no.1. Nevertheless, I'm certain those behind Hangover and UP will be happy no matter what. The former for opening beyond expectations, and UP showing tremendous longevity which points to a long long run this summer.
As for Land of the Lost, well, I guess if a T-Rex is not chasing Sam Neill and/or Jeff Goldblum, people are not interested.
Hangover is junk. I didn't laugh in the trailer. Didn't laugh at the movie. Guy on IMDB put it best: "It's like sex and the city for retarded frat boys." I'm disappointed it's doing this well.
I'm glad to see "The Hangover" do so well. I attended a 9:40 showing on Friday night in a theater playing the film on 2 screens, and it was still packed. And there was genuine laughter the entire time.
@Brad Brevet: I just got through watching "The Hangover" for the first time. It was such a gutbusting, hold my sides, laugh till-it-hurt film that I fully expect good-word-of-mouth to spread like wildfire and propel this film to just over $50 million and a 1st Place finish over "Up".
@kdogg: You must have stumbled into the screening for "Land of the Lost" by mistake. The abysmal acting and big green dinosaur should have been a dead giveaway.
Early Sat estimates had UP at 17mil and Hangover at 14mil. That's typical since R-Rated comedies tend to be more frontloaded and diminish as the weekend progresses, while Family films earn the greater chunk of their weekend grosses on Sat and Sun. Up pretty much made up the difference from the Fri gross already and in all likelihood, pull ahead on Sun. Nevertheless, both films will be in the 43-47mil range and Warner Bros and Disney/Pixar are gonna be thrilled regardless of who comes out no.1.
these two films will be #1 and 2 next weekend as well, my guess is that even fewer people will see pelham than land of the lost.
Damn, I was way off for the Hangover. It's going to make nearly double my prediction. DAMN.
Yeah, unfortunately, I also caught LoL. It was technically worse than Hangover, but I still didn't laught at Hangover. I hate frat boys. I guess if you don't mind having pine cones shoved up your anus to gain acceptance, you'll be open to like anything. :)
according to Box Office Mojo it's suuuuuuuper close between Up and Hangover, 44 to 43 million in favor of Up
Both Disney/Pixar and WB are ecstatic no matter who is no.1. UP is pretty much ascertained 250mil at the very least, and it looks like it is going to chug along to 300mil. On the other hand, The Hangover surpassed even WB's most optimistic projections. Expect these two films to be atop next weeks as well with around 27-32mil each.