Image Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon
The box office cooked up a feast with an overall four-day gross of nearly $280 million — the largest Memorial Day weekend on record. Furthermore, the box office’s Friday-to-Sunday tally of $221 million was the strongest three-day weekend result since Christmas Weekend in 2009.
Commanding the grill was The Hangover Part II, which collected an estimated $105.8 million over the four-day frame. That’s the fourth-best Memorial Day weekend debut, behind Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and X-Men: The Last Stand. The R-rated comedy sequel, which opened on Thursday, earned $137.4 million its first five days — the second-biggest start for an R-rated movie (falling just short of The Matrix Reloaded) and the best start ever for a live-action comedy. The $80 million movie, produced by Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, attracted an audience that was 54 percent under the age of 25. That’s a relief to Hollywood, which has so far struggled this year with younger moviegoers. And those who saw The Hangover Part II liked it, as the film received an “A-” rating from CinemaScore graders.
Adding charcoal to the flame was DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 2, which took in $62.2 million over the holiday weekend. Its Friday-to-Sunday gross of $47.8 million was the year’s top opening for an animated film, beating the trio of Rio, Rango, and Hop. However, the PG-rated Panda 2 is a mild disappointment when compared to its 2008 predecessor, which grossed a stronger $66.6 million its first four days — and without the higher prices that come with 3-D showings. Panda 2‘s three-dimensional screenings accounted for only 45 percent of its revenue, tying Despicable Me for the lowest 3-D percentage for a major release since the beginning of 2009. But the $150 million martial-arts comedy should hold up well the next few weeks, as CinemaScore audiences handed it a superb “A” grade.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides dropped 44 percent for $50.4 million. (Its three-day weekend decline was a more representative 56 percent) With $164 million in the bag so far, the PG-13 sequel is destined to become the franchise’s lowest-grossing title domestically. But foreign moviegoers are eating it up, as On Stranger Tides has already accumulated $485.1 million overseas. In fourth place, Bridesmaids virtually duplicated its gross from last weekend with $21 million. After three weeks, the R-rated comedy has earned $89.6 million. And Thor hammered out $12 million, bringing its cumulative total to $162.4 million.
In limited release, Terrence Malick’s mesmerizing drama The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, grossed $489,000 from four locations, for a splendid per-theater average of $122,250. And Woody Allen’s nostalgic comedy Midnight in Paris expanded to 58 theaters and brought in $2.6 million. Check back next week as X-Men: First Class throws its mutant hat into the ring.
1. The Hangover Part II — $105.8 mil
2. Kung Fu Panda 2 — $62.2 mil
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides — $50.4 mil
4. Bridesmaids — $21.0 mil
5. Thor — $12.0 mil
Just an amazing weekend at the box office for Hollywood films. I’ve seen Thor and Pirates but was unable to see any of the other three films in the top five. The other three were all sold out Saturday night when we went to the 7pm shows. Wow for the box office! They’ve gone from begging people to come see movies to hitting it out of the park. May will produce three to possibly four films that gross $200+ million domestically; Hangover 2, Pirates 4, Thor, and Kung Fu Panda 2. And late April release, Fast Five will cross the 200 million dollar mark in a few days.
America pays out the a$$ to see crap. When will people support quality movies?
Forget it LOL, it’s America(town).
And ‘foreign moviegoers are eating up’ the Pirates movie, so I don’t think that America’s the only guilty one here. Get over yourself.
I don’t live in another country. Besides, I hold the USA to a higher standard.
The only thing repetitive than EW reporting the daily $ gross of the Hangover is LOL’s comment about how “America” loves crap. As if we are the only country who are going out to see these films.
Hangover II was freaking hilarious! Also loved Thor and POTC 4! I must say, this summer season of movies is working out quite well. Definitely looking forward to X-men: First Class this week.
The only thing LOL seems to be good at is whining.
What better way for American to honor those who have died and sacrificed in service to their country than to line up and plop money down to see a movie about self absorbed characters getting plastered and engaging in an endless stream of raunchy exploits. Well done, America, well done!
well written true to life movies people won’t pay to see,but they will pay for movies done over and over again.i don’t get it.
You’re right Justin, Hangover is funny, but it’s no Fast Five. It just depresses me that we can’t get more films like Fast Five this summer. Action, drama, Vin Diesel’s buttocks, comedy, it really had it all! Still, America did the best job it could, outside of making Fast Five number one again.
i am so sick of seeing the comment “america loves crap” we got it….take a few weeks off from posting it!
It seems Justin loves crap. Thor was garbage, well at least half of it was. Havent seen Pirates or Hangover but why would I even bother. Been there done that.. On the other hand Bridesmaids was hilarious.. And KP2 was the only movie so far to actually merit a 3D release. Go see Tree of LIfe and reflect on how meaningless your existence is and leave LOL alone.
Unfortunately Rashy, I’m entitled to an opinion, and someone who seems to write “America loves Crap” for every movie except Fast Five (which I loved, too) seems to be someone that is too hard to please. That’s just how I see it. If you don’t want to see those movies, fine, then just don’t, but don’t come at me like a big baby because I enjoy movies you don’t. So while I look forward to seeing Bridesmaids, why don’t you reflect on how stupid you sound right now and leave me alone.
I’m not hard to please Justin, I just like quality films like Fast Five. If Hollywood could make films with even just a fraction of the quality of Fast Five, then I wouldn’t complain. I’m afraid Hollywood may have peaked to early this year, after the brilliant Fast Five, everything else just seems like weak sauce.
Less good movies to see, more money for the ones that don’t suck so badly. Nice going!
There’ no chance in Hela’s realm that Thor will gross 200 million, especially with the direct competition it gets next week with X-Men:First Class.
Sure it will-it’s at about 165M now and it’ll hang around in theaters for the next few weeks making about 10 Million a week
Let’s face it; The Hangover left such a good taste in moviegoers’ minds mainly due to the characters and the situations they got in, but the film itself was not a brilliant piece of cinema. The sequel is having such sucess out of the gate because people love these characters, and seeing them again is enough for their fans, regardless of the film being a virtual remake of the first one.
I find it funny the LOL considers Fast 5 a quality film but The Hangover is crap. Both shows are good but I wouldn’t consider either a quality movie.
“America loves crap”
Haters need to stop complaining, Hangover 2 is a COMEDY and it made me LAUGH. Therefore it succeeded in what it set out to accomplish.
C’mon, if those crappy gay teenage vampire movies can make $300 million nowadays why not a truly FUNNY comedy that’s at least well made!?
Just waiting on some ass to call you out for using the word ‘gay’ negatively.
Just waiting on some ass to call me out because his insecurities have surfaced.
What do I have to be insecure about? Everyone uses the phrase gay to describe something bad, get over it.
Using “gay” to describe something bad is lazy. Try harder.
Is “well everyone else is doing it” really the best argument you could come up with? That is lazier than using the word “gay” in the first place. CHILDREN are the only people who can use that excuse acceptably. Get some self respect.
Usually when I drink, I can not always get havgoner. But I think one night I drank too much and so the next day I went to work and had a massive headache. I could not throw up or something. Did not feel like eating either. But I forced myself to eat, and I hate a nice decent size hotdog and disappeared a few chips and the headaches! Best bet? Eat something, and make sure they have bread with it. If the headache does not go away, just keep eating then maybe you can puke it out and feel better. Drink some pop so you can even burp.
Why does someone feel the need to post the same thing every day? Yes The Hangover movies are stupid fun but lets not go overboard and say they’re well made. They’re a string of sex/penis jokes and toilet humour tied together with a night of binge drinking, hardly Comedy’s Citizen Cane.
I do not remember jacob and edward making out and having sex in the twilight movies..if they had I would have watched more than the first two.
If stupid comedies can gross $100 million on their first weekend, then yes, the Twilight films are free to make more than that.
The Vampire flicks are for teen girls, what is so ‘gay’ about them? Gays don’t like girly stuff as much as some ‘know it alls’ think.
I’m just waiting for Midnight in Paris to expand. It actually looks funny.
The summer is surprisingly great this year. Midnight in Paris was terrific, I can’t wait to see Tree of Life, and Super 8 looks awesome. It’s good that these movies are doing well, because it shows that movies that aren’t sequels can do well in the summer.
Those are the two I want to see next! TofL and MiP.
Very very sad. I saw “Midnight in Paris” this weekend and THAT is a great, funny, clever film. Too bad so many people eat up absolute garbage like “Hangover II” when an actual COMEDY is playing.
Ok this is pretty much the only thing I laeenrd in college that I still so this information is fairly expensive:) The best way to a hangover is the Pre4vention.Obwohl vitamin B12 is expensive, it helps the brain retain water thus taking approximately 500mg before drinking the chances that you will wake up with headaches to reduce beginnen.Der trick to get drunk with drinking, is up to the point where you feel good, but not to the point that the sick are received. Here\’s my trick for every drink alcohol that you drink 6-8 liters of water. I drink water back with a so-called, that\’s just a glass of water with what I drink. Most bartenders will know what you\’re talking about, if you drink your order back water with a. Ok your friends can laugh at you, but you will laugh at you if you just see them on the bathroom floor werden.Lassen you tell us so that we have 12 shots of vodka and forget that no water to drink. Here\’s the bad part . You owe it to your system 72-96 ml of water they drink, if you can not, then puke, if you will lose a lot of alcohol in the system and reduce the chances that you get a hangover kotzen.Viel luck! Perfect mastery of the art of self-poisoning need time to perfect and do not worry even the pros like me make mistakes once in a while and end up in bed feeling green the day after!-Www.p30.com
DANG! It’s making a lot of money.
I haven’t seen it yet, but I still want to despite the reviews.
It is not *funny* or *cool* to use the word ‘gay’ to trash something you don’t like. Grow up.
People paid $12 to see the exact same movie.
not dissin ” the hangover” movies seen the first one at the cinema.i just don’t get why people don’t support good independent movies.
Maybe because people make up their own minds to what they want to spend their hsrd-earned money on! If you want more people to see independent movies, pay gor their damn ticket!
Sorry about the typos, but it’s hard to type perfectly when fired up!
I watched a bootleg of The Hangover 2 online. Not bad, but it’s essentially The Hangover – just in a different location. I’m glad I didn’t pay to see it.
Imagine how much money it would’ve taken in if it was any good. Thought the first was was overrated; second went downhill from there with no new ideas except the location.
I saw Thor again this weekend. I don’t really want to see that other useless drivel. (I’m looking at you, Hangover II)
The Beaver is the best film I’ve seen in 2011 (not counting the late-released 2010 Oscar contenders). It’s as good as “I Love You Philip Morris.” So far I’ve been to ‘Monica Velour’ (cute), ‘Everything Must Go’ (loved it) and ‘The Beaver’ (great). Guess I’m an Indie demographic, woot!
GO SEE THE BEAVER. Any flick with Radiohead and Jon Stewart in it, wow!
“Bridesmaids” is a very funny movie that most definitely is not just for women. I would say I’m glad to see it is doing well, but I had nothing to do with the making of the movie and I don’t own a theater, so I don’t care about box-office grosses. Neither should you.
Neither do the analysts who predict the grosses, people love to hear about how movies succeed or fail. Not brush your views on the rest of us. I won a $100 bet saying the Dark Knight would clear over $400 mil and it did 500. Some of us like to see whats popular in culture and whats not, so bugger off.
Good job box office, although I think more people should watch Kung Fu Panda 2, I thought it was awesome.
And I’m now I’m curious enough to watch The Hangover 2 despite some bad word of mouth and the fact that I didn’t really like the first one.
As for Bridesmaids, I actually thought it was like The Hangover in regards as to how I reacted to it. Everyone is saying how awesome and hilarious it is but I think its just an alright movie. Although Kristen wig was great in it, and it was well written and had a few scenes that were hilirious.
They should have focused more on the other Bridesmaids and dropped the whole half baked cop romance drab.. Check out the outtakes at Funny or Die