Image Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon
Now this is one stubborn Hangover. After scoring the third-best Thursday debut ever with $31.6 million, The Hangover Part II showed no signs of retreating and posted another $30 million on Friday, according to early estimates. That’s the largest Friday figure ever for a live-action comedy, giving the R-rated sequel a massive $61.6 million in just two days. By comparison, the first Hangover movie — the top-grossing R-rated comedy ever — had accumulated $31.8 million its first two days. The Hangover Part II is now on track for all sorts of gargantuan weekend tallies. It’s on pace for a three-day (Friday-to-Sunday) take of about $87 million, which would beat 2002′s Austin Powers in Goldmember for the biggest three-day weekend for a live-action comedy. And for the four-day weekend (including Memorial Day), the Wolf Pack is looking to snatch almost $110 million. CinemaScore audiences handed the film an “A-” grade, so word of mouth is likely positive.
Kung Fu Panda 2, however, has so far had trouble living up to its predecessor. The animated martial-arts comedy picked up $13.2 million on Friday, bringing its two-day total to $19 million. The first Kung Fu Panda, by comparison, made $20.3 million on its first day alone. Still, expect the PG-rated sequel to bounce back the rest of the weekend, as most kids were still in school on Thursday and Friday. Panda is heading for a four-day weekend gross of around $65 million, and earned a solid “A” rating from CinemaScore moviegoers.
In third, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides plummeted 69 percent from last Friday for $10.9 million. The last two Pirates films, Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End, suffered roughly the same Friday-to-Friday drops (67 and 70 percent, respectively). On Stranger Tides should finish the four-day weekend with about $48 million, pushing its two-week tally past $160 million. In fourth place, Bridesmaids held up especially well considering its Hangover competition, dropping only 27 percent for $4.6 million. And in fifth, the mighty Thor fell 45 percent for $2.4 million.
In limited release, Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, earned $115,000 from only four locations. The eons-spanning drama posted a per-theater average of $28,750. If the estimate holds, that’ll be the year’s largest opening-day average, barely beating last week’s Midnight in Paris. Check back here on Sunday for another update, and on Monday for the complete box office report.
1. The Hangover Part II — $30.0 mil
2. Kung Fu Panda 2 — $13.2 mil
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides — $10.9 mil
4. Bridesmaids — $4.6 mil
5. Thor — $2.4 mil
People like this movie series since it’s a easy gossipmagazineonline.com and greatvacationspots.net watching movie, just a simple comedy
Ehhh whuck?
Do you think anyone would ever click on a link like that? What a a$$.
America is drunk.
Pixar films are cinematic gold and modern day classics!! Dreamworks flicks, Ice Age n-quels, Happy Feet/Owls of whatever and The Incredibles-knock-offs are pure pop trash!!!
I like turtles.
I concur, I feel like ostriches provide the best pants.
A cartoon is a cartoon. Kid fluff. It might be good fluff but it is still fluff.
Wow, huge weekend for movies. Of course the pundits wanted to put down 2011 as another weak year but once the summer really rolls in, the box office tallies will be huge.
but they’re comparing it to previous years. plus i think they factor in inflation/ticketprices/3d as well. and there is less and less money being spent in theaters. the internet/downloading is partly to blame. the crud hollywood is selling is also to blame.
Pixar films are cinematic gold and modern day classics!! Dreamworks flicks, Shrek-wrecks, Ice Age n-quels, Happy Feet/Owls of whatever and The Incredibles-knock-offs are pure pop trash!!!
The stupidest statistic for the stupidest, most gullible people. “Highest grossing movie” blah, blah, blah . . . IT COSTS MORE TO SEE A MOVIE THAN IN YEARS PAST!!!
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It might be the most ridiculous, misused statistic in society. A better statistic is adjusting for inflation and/or by tickets sold. In that way, these “highest grossing” movies would fall way down the list if compared equally. For example, Avatar, the highest grossing movie of all-time is only 14th – but you don’t here that too much, no do you?
Totally agree with you. As long as ticket prices continue to increase, whether this is due to 3-D, or simply good ol’ inflation, records like this will continue to be broken year after godd@mn year.
I’ve never understood why it doesn’t go by tickets sold. How much a movie makes is meaningless.
Books and music go by units sold. Why can’t movies do the same?
Because everyone downloads them for free with bittorrent these days, so units wouldn’t be accurate at all.
Units would be accurate since we’re measuring auddiences in theaters, not DVDs sold.
Agreed. Sports venues don’t talk dollar take they talk paid attendance. Cardinals surpassed 3mil this season, a sold out crowd of 75,376 attended the game, etc. Should do the same for movies that way all movies would be compared on an equal level regardless of the era when it was released.
they do account for inflation…
You guys have way to much time on probably over used hands. Who cares about inflation and all that bs just enjoy the movie. Hangover 1, and 2 are great movies. Suck it
Wouldn’t seeing it be the equivalent of “sucking it” as you so eloquently put it??
I thought the first few months this year after the Oscar nominated movies had some weak movies and they never matched last year’s ticket sales at the same time. Now, these recent movies are off to huge starts, especially Pirates and Hangover and even the female-led comedy Bridemaids has performed well.
Most of the time I see people whining on these comments sections about the lack of originality from Hollywood, yet they’ll continue to pump money into something like this which is wholly unoriginal. Blame yourselves, not Hollywood.
This.
This isn’t new though. It’s been like this since the beginning of cinema.
There were over 30(!) Bowery Boys movies and SEVEN(!) Francis the Talking Mule movies.
Even a good series of movies like the Thin Man movies had 6 entries.
Remember that the Matrix started as an original, fresh concept of a movie before getting pummeled by nonsensical, noisy sequels?
The point being is: nothing has changed really.
That said, some sequels and spinoffs can be fun.
But everyone should definitely seek out original movies, be they big studio or independent. Let’s balance things out a bit.
That’s fine to make sequels or a series, but I was more commenting on people then coming to these sections and complaining about Hollywood doing it.
I agree with you Rolo, just meant to say that it’s always been this way since movies began to those that keep harping on this sort of thing.
There was no TV then, so there were movie ‘series’.
How many original stories are there?! Hell most of them were written by Shakespeare and even he reused ideas from ancient Greek and Roman literature who probably stole them also from some more ancient source…
America loves to pay for crap.
Actually, I take that back, The Hangover movie is very funny. It just doesn’t live up to the sheer brilliance of Fast Five, it had it all, action, romance, Vin Diesel’s buttocks, and comedy. It was like a masters class in filmmaking. In comparison, everything is just sort of meh. But America did the best job they could outside of making Fast Five number one again.
You’ve become very tiresome
No I haven’t.
Nobody is going to actually pay to see this.
True. But I for one don’t pour money into a movie that I know is crap. When I’m actually paying for a movie ticket, it’s going to a movie that at least seems original, or well made. Though I’m probably in the minority.
so it’s our fault you lack originality.. very clever.. very very clever..
Troll
I’m surprised the CinemaScore grade is so high for The Hangover Part 2. I saw it last night. It was decent and it had its funny moments, but for the most part, it was just a retread of the original and not nearly as funny or exciting. The theater was nearly full and judging from the amount of laughter during the movie and from comments I heard on the way out, it seemed evident that most people in the theater probably felt the same way I did. I’d give the movie a B-. Bridesmaids was actually better.
My thoughts exactly!
I totally agree! I thought it was very disappointing. At times it was almost a shot for shot remake of the original (except in another country). There were long periods of silence in our theater…the laughs were realatively few and far between if compared to the first one. We went home and immediately watched the first movie to get the taste of the second one out of our mouths!
The article about how 3D actually hurt Pirates was actually really interesting.
When I went to see Thor, the 2D screening was so packed we had to exchange tickets for the next showing, which was in 3D. That screening was practically empty.
Looks like Kung Fu Panda is also suffering as I just saw an article about how only 40% of the tickets bought are 3D showings, yet most of the movie’s screens are in 3D, not 2D.
*puts on glasses*
Theoretically speaking, these 3 movies would have actually sold more tickets and made more money if they had been shown primarily in plain ole 2D!
Hopefully this means that this will be the last summer of such a glut of 3D movies, as they’re actually HURTING business.
I prefer to see pirate 4 again.
now back to the good part!
Meet nancy. Ew.com’s newest tiresome troll.
Yeah,me too!
Surprised at how fast Thor is sinking and at the underwhelming performance of Po’s return. i’m not happy.
EW, you forgot to mention that Midnight in Paris came in at #9 while playing at only around 60 theaters.
I’m also surprised that Kung Fu Panda 2 couldn’t overtake The Hangover. It should hold up in the weeks to come, though.
Yeah, Kung Fu Panda 2 will probably hold up well. Cars 2 doesn’t come out until June 24, so Po has a few weeks to bring in some cash.
Oh god. Now there will be a Hangover III. Ugh. What’s next? The guys show up at an AA meeting not knowing how they got there?
Hangover IV – adventures in child support
Why? The critics got it wrong. The movie has a following. I was at a packed theater last night and loved the movie. Everyone clapped when the movie came on. Even clapped at the end. Word of mouth beats critics.
You love crap.
This is sad. People are paying money to see a lesser sequel that’s almost an exact copy of the original. If you want a good comedy, go see Bridesmaids. It’s hilarious and original. I’ll definately be skipping The Hangover 2 and go see Midnight In Paris, which I’m sure will be a much better movie. If people would try and go see independent films, which are so much more original than most blockbusters, Hollywood might start to give us better movies.
There’s never been a shortage of “better” movies – it just takes some effort to find them.
Do you think the average male in his twenties would prefer to see a Woody Allen film over the Hangover 2, as bad as it may be?
No, I think the average male in his twenties would prefer to get laid, but he can’t because he’s too busy watching these movies, which leads him to believe that being drunk and stupid is charming.
I would love someone to explain to me how “Bridesmaids” is original. It was like every movie cliche you can think of mashed into one movie. I do not understand all the hype surrounding it. Not that I thought “The Hangover” was any better, mind you.
I think Bridesmaids is different because there are some heartfelt and emotional scenes in the movie along with the laughter and comedy and doesn’t ride on the cliches of other wedding movies. Or even looks or sounds like another wedding movie. These writers of the movie avoided that.
But I think that the writers of Hangover Part II didn’t want to get away from the formula that made the first one so successful. They didn’t change too much from the original, just had them in another city with the similar themes.
the reason why its important to keep with the orginal formula is to tye it all togeather..i think u need to watch it again it was much funnier..smarter..best movie of the year
After watching the second movie, we watched the first one the next day. It was amazing how much of it was the same…the dialogue,actual scenes, the characters’ roles in the plot…they were identical at times. It really hit home what a lazy sequel this was! They took the basic outline and dialogue of the first one and just plugged in a different city and a few different characters…and they’re going to cash in mightily for their laziness and greed. Unbelievable.
I guess it won’t be until Monday afternoon or Tuesday when we get the usual movie demographics but, basically, the adults got off their butts and went to the movie theatres for a change. The economy is really showing again this year like it did when The Blind Side was a surprise hit. During the tough times, pretty much the only time the adults go out in droves is to take their kids to see the animated movies. I’m a little surprised Po isn’t doing better but like EW said, that should change with the kiddies outta school. The point is, good or bad, THII is doing good because the adults have the expectation of an entertaining movie worth their funds. Some very good movies have tanked this year because of the economic woes of our times. PPV and Netflix do very well at times like these (and that new upstart “redbox”) but when a movie that people can relate to, and they expect to be entertained by, comes out, the masses will come out. But don’t judge the quality of a movie by its numbers this year, you’ll be sadly misled when you finally rent it on DVD, especially if it’s a sequel! Well, with the exception of Fast Five. It’s doing well but not as good as it could be during prosperous times. And Midnight in Paris is one of Woody Allen’s best, so far its doing well in Limited Release. But it will have trouble in it’s wider release because it is a DVD movie. It’s a talking travelogue. Conversational films, lots of dialogue (and very little action), seem to be perfect for the couch potatoes. They can be rewound to repeat dialogue missed or misunderstood. Until the economy rebounds, films like THII will be more successful than they deserve to be. (p.s. I saw it in a free preview. While it had its multiple moments of hilarity, like the first one, it’s not worth the full price of a ticket? But then again, I do not favor base comedies like Bachelor Party or Animal House – even on DVD!)
“Conversational films, lots of dialogue (and very little action), seem to be perfect for the couch potatoes.”
Or perhaps just perfect for people who don’t feel the constant need to lower their standards and turn off their minds–and there just aren’t as many of those people out there.
Thank you. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Granted, I like a good action movie. But I also expect some character development and plot.
Character development and plot? Let’s be serious, this is Hollywood.
@nancy
If Hollywood is so hopeless to you why are you here on a site that devotes much of its time to it?
I think this is one of the few adult live action comedy movies that the adults wanted to see on their own and not take their kids to see. These adult live action comedy movies have had to compete against animated films the past few late springs and summers, yet this movie really has taken off in 2 days! And even crushed Johnny Depp’s Pirates of the Caribbean sequel and the very consistent mostly female driven hit Bridesmaids! And I was surprised that Kung Fu Panda hasn’t performed as well as expected. Maybe it’s because the kids that are the movie’s target audience have some 10 to 15 days of school left and have to get ready for those final tests. They didn’t position/schedule some of the movies on the right release dates just to launch the summer movie season, which led to Hangover’s huge numbers.
@PN..This hangover diden’t crush Johnny depp’Pirates of the caribbean..I want to put this straight,first POTC4 was release one friday and the Box office people only count friday and saturday numbers,and they said the numbers of that movie so early in the sunday morning the past weekend,something that they didn’t do it with hangover2 today,and hangover was release on thursday,one more day than POTC4,so hangover did 87millions IN 3 DAY,AND POTC4 DID 90,01mILLIONS IN ONLY 2 DAYS ,DID YOU SEE THE DIFERENCE?This hangover is popular only in US,in other places is only a silly movie ,and I really can’t belive that so many people want to see 5 idiots fooling around somewhere in the world,what they gonna do next time? Hangover 3 fooling around in China?..No tanks,they don’t worth my money,I prefer go to see POTC4 AGAIN!Go Johnny
Figures it’s doing so well. Trust Americans to line up in droves for something they’ve already seen before.
Japanese have been lining up to see Godzilla movies for 60 years.
Grown men who watch cartoon charaters getting it on too.
@nancy
troll
That quick in 2 days despite the savage, cold movie reviews it’s gotten. The people ignored the bad reviews and watched the movie instead!