Buoyed no doubt by repeat business and premium 3-D ticket prices, Disney/Pixar’s Up lifted past the bona fide surprise hit The Hangover to be the first film of the summer to land at number one at the box office two weekends in a row. Well, maybe. Early estimates from Hollywood.com Box Office have Up grossing an estimated $44.2 million to The Hangover‘s $43.3 million, a less than $1 mil difference that gives the R-rated comedy a chance to push to the top spot once actual figures are released tomorrow. Regardless of the final numbers, Up‘s estimated total gross of $137 million places it firmly in the upper echelon of Pixar earners.
Even if The Hangover doesn’t pop enough of Up‘s balloons to make it to No. 1, stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis and director Todd Phillips (Old School) have a lot to celebrate. Not only did the film pull in an outstanding "A" CinemaScore rating, the craziest-bachelor-party-ever dude-fest managed to draw in just about as many women as it did men. That bodes well for the film’s staying power through the rest of the month, where its stiffest comedy competition will be the high-concept, ancient times Jack Black/Michael Cera flick Year One in two weeks.
And if Land of the Lost‘s box office fate is anything to go by, Black and Cera should be certainly concerned. The high-concept comedy under-performed with $19.5 million for third place, nowhere near star Will Ferrell’s best opening weekends. Worse yet, the film earned a dismal C+ CinemaScore average; audiences 35 to 49, ostensibly the age group that would best remember the original 1970s kids TV series on which the film is based, gave it a D+. Ouch.
