Weekend Box-Office: May 27-29, 2010

No
hangover for Hangover 2…

If you consider that THE
HANGOVER 2 will likely add another $20M to its coffers on holiday
Monday, the film could end up grossing around $138M over the first 5
days of its release, which establishes a new benchmark for
comedies going forward. The film also grossed $86M over the 3-day
weekend alone, which breaks the previous record for comedies held
by BRUCE ALMIGHTY set over the Memorial Day weekend back in 2003
($85.7M). The film could also establish the largest 5-day opening
for any R-rated picture, comedy or otherwise, possibly improving
on THE MATRIX RELOADED, which made $134M in the first 5 days of
its release and THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, which made $125M.

That said, if you’re curious as
to where it fits into the all-time
list of 4-day opening movies right now, it’s only in
20th place behind many other sequels films. THE
DARK KNIGHT still holds the all-time record for a 4-day opening
with $183M. I say "only" but obviously the film just had
an amazing opening weekend, and that’s despite the mostly negative
reviews (only 35% positive reviews on Rotten
Tomatoes and a 5.9/10
average on Movie Fan Central).

It seems as though many of you predicted the
success of HANGOVER 2 correctly last Sunday, when we
asked you if that film or KUNG FU PANDA 2 would finish atop
the box-office charts this weekend (it was 60% for HANGOVER and
30% for PANDA 2). Generally, kids movies have a lot more
"legs" so we’ll see how both films end up, but for now,
HANGOVER 2 was the big winner, even though PANDA 2 also had a
decent $48M opening this weekend ($54M if you include the Thursday
figures). The original KUNG FU PANDA opened with $60M back in 2008
and ended up grossing $215M when all was said and done. The sequel
certainly has its work cut out for it, if it expects to beat that
total this time around.

The 4th installment of the PIRATES OF THE
CARIBBEAN franchise dropped from 1st to 3rd place this weekend
(losing 56% of its audience from last weekend), but has now
crossed the $150M mark in the first 10 days of its release.
BRIDESMAIDS also continued going strong, losing only 26% of its
audience from last weekend, while closing in on the $90M mark
(remember that the film only cost $32M to make). Finally, THOR
sticks around in 5th place and jacks its total to $160M, while
FAST FIVE continues to be the #1
movie of the year so far, as it closes in on the $200M mark
(it would be the first film to surpass that number this year), and
sticks around in 6th place.

By the way, due mostly to the success of the top 5
films below, this Memorial Day weekend broke the all-time record
set back in 2007 for this holiday weekend, as it ended up grossing
around $280M, which beat the previous record of $255M. Seems like
the box-office is back in gear again! It’s to note that last
year’s Memorial Day weekend grossed a paltry $193M. The three
films to get booted from the top 10 this week (Woody Allen’s
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS somehow finagled its way into the top 10 this
week — btw, can anyone tell me how that film ended up costing
$30M?) included PRIEST ($27M), WATER FOR ELEPHANTS ($54M) and
MADEA’S BIG HAPPY FAMILY ($52M).

Next weekend sees the release of only one big film
(which is probably enough for now, considering all of the
high-wattage movies still remaining in the top 6 below) entitled X-MEN:
FIRST CLASS, the 5th film connected to the X-MEN franchise. So
far, the word on the street is pretty good on this installment,
and I guess it doesn’t hurt that KICKASS director Matthew Vaughn
was behind the camera on this one. So what’s your excitement level
for the next X-MEN flick? VOTE
HERE!!!