LAST WEEKEND Sandra Bullock showed North America who's boss with her return to romantic comedy in The Proposal which gave the actress the biggest opening of her career and her first number one hit in over a decade. Rival comedy Year One enjoyed a respectable debut in fourth place while holdover sensations The Hangover and Up continued their amazing runs with small declines once again. Thanks to four funny films topping $20M a piece, the overall marketplace inched ahead of last year's levels for the first time in four weeks putting the industry in a good position with Megan Fox and the Autobots on the horizon.
Moviegoers gave a very loud yes to Bullock this weekend as The Proposal powered ahead of expectations to open to an estimated $34.1M to easily lead the box office race. The bow nearly doubled the $17.6M of her 2007 thriller Premonition to set a new record for the actress who since the mid 1990s has routinely opened films in the $13-17M range. It was also the largest opening for any romantic comedy this year beating the $27.8M of February's He's Just Not That Into You which boasted more starpower with Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, and Drew Barrymore. Proposal averaged a scorching $11,163 from 3,056 locations.
With many male-skewing comedies and action pics this summer, Buena Vista found a great slot on the calendar to target women and was rewarded with a potent debut. Studio research showed that 63% of the audience was female and 86% was 18 and older. Couples made up 71%. Reviews were mixed, but ticket buyers responded to the starpower of the extremely likable lead, good marketing, and the story. Bullock plays a Canadian-born book editor who must pretend to be engaged to her assistant (Ryan Reynolds) in order to avoid deportation. The studio offered sneak previews last weekend which helped to get buzz going among adult women and the date crowd.
Bullock has avoided romantic comedies for much of this decade and audiences clearly missed her. The last time she reached the top of the charts was in March 1999 with Forces of Nature co-starring Ben Affleck which spent two weeks at number one. Proposal performed much like the studio's 2002 blockbuster Sweet Home Alabama, another star-driven rom-com about an uptight New York City big shot who must travel to small town America to fix her wedding dilemmas. That Reese Witherspoon hit opened to $35.6M on its way to a stellar $127.2M.
Though booted from the top spot, the runaway comedy smash The Hangover still attracted strong business in its third weekend slipping a mere 18% to an estimated $26.9M propelling the cume to an eye-popping $152.9M. After just 17 days, the Warner Bros. hit has already surpassed the total grosses of recent R-rated summer comedy hits like Sex and the City ($152.6M), Knocked Up ($148.8M), Superbad ($121.5M), and The 40-Year-Old Virgin ($109.2M). This weekend, the men-behaving-badly smash also passed Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino ($148.1M) to become the highest-grossing R flick since 300 which launched in March 2007 on its way to $210.6M. All three were distributed by Warner Bros. Hangover now looks set to pass $225M and could even reach the $250M mark although with its incredible durability, the sky's the limit.
For the third straight session, Pixar's Up followed Hangover on the charts and collected an estimated $21.3M in its fourth weekend. Down only 31%, the Disney release shattered the $200M barrier on Thursday and boosted its 24-day total to $224.1M. Up is performing very much like Pixar's biggest fish Finding Nemo which dropped 26% to $21.1M in its fourth weekend putting its total at $228.5M. With help from higher ticket prices and surcharges for 3D, Up is running only 2% behind Nemo's pace. But the road ahead will get tricky as Fox will steal away most of Up's 3D screens when it launches its animated sequel Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs on July 1 leaving the flying house flick with mostly 2D runs. Fox held sneaks of Ice Age on Sunday nationwide in select theaters for Father's Day.
More comedy could be found in the number four spot. The Jack Black-Michael Cera vehicle Year One bowed with an estimated $20.2M from 3,022 locations for a solid $6,684 average. Young guys were the primary audience for the PG-13 tale of two slacker hunter-gathers from ancient times who go out and explore the world. Studio research showed that males made up 57% of the audience while 47% were under 21. With other comedies targeting adult women, older adults, and small kids, Sony found an opportunity to connect with its target demo. But the road ahead will get difficult very quickly with a gargantuan debut expected for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen starting Tuesday night at midnight.
Audiences didn't take to Denzel Washington in the second weekend of his hostage thriller The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. The Sony release tumbled 52% to an estimated $11.3M putting the ten-day tally at $43.3M. It was a bigger sophomore drop than those the Oscar winner saw with previous R-rated pics like Man on Fire (34%), Inside Man (47%), and American Gangster (45%). Budgeted at more than $100M, Pelham should finish its North American run with $65-70M and will need a strong international run.
Two franchise films with strong legs followed. Fox's Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian grossed an estimated $7.3M, down 24%, for a $156M cume to date. Ranking as the year's top-grossing film for possibly the last weekend, Star Trek dipped only 14% to an estimated $4.7M and has collected a stellar $239.4M thus far.
Rounding out the top ten were some of the summer's unlucky films. Crashing 56% in its third weekend, Will Ferrell's Land of the Lost fell to eighth place with an estimated $4M and a total of $43.7M for Universal. Fellow SNL alum Eddie Murphy followed with his latest box office stinker Imagine That which grossed an estimated $3.1M for Paramount, off 44%, putting the sum at a pitiful $11.4M after ten days. Terminator Salvation dropped 36% to an estimated $3.1M giving Warner Bros. $119.5M domestically.
| # | Title | Jun 19 - 21 | Theaters | Cumulative | Distributor | ||||
| 1 | The Proposal | $ 34,114,000 | 3,056 | $ 34,114,000 | Buena Vista | ||||
| 2 | The Hangover | 26,855,000 | 3,545 | 152,919,000 | Warner Bros. | ||||
| 3 | Up | 21,336,000 | 3,832 | 224,113,000 | Buena Vista | ||||
| 4 | Year One | 20,200,000 | 3,022 | 20,200,000 | Sony | ||||
| 5 | The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 | 11,300,000 | 3,077 | 43,332,000 | Sony | ||||
| 6 | Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian | 7,300,000 | 2,962 | 155,953,000 | Fox | ||||
| 7 | Star Trek | 4,700,000 | 2,307 | 239,444,000 | Paramount | ||||
| 8 | Land of the Lost | 3,976,000 | 2,945 | 43,672,000 | Universal | ||||
| 9 | Imagine That | 3,100,000 | 3,011 | 11,351,000 | Paramount | ||||
| 10 | Terminator Salvation | 3,070,000 | 1,920 | 119,513,000 | Warner Bros. |
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