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Posted May 31, 2011 by Seth Paul in News
 
 

Weekend Box-Office: The Hangover Part II Hangs Over All Comers

It may be almost the same story as the last one, and according to critics, not as well told, but Memorial Day was a good time to be suffering from a blackout…The Hangover Part II pushed aside all competition, earning a total of $105.7 million during the holiday weekend. The original film had only a 3-day weekend in its initial release and steadily grew in popularity with word of mouth, but the opening weekend of the sequel blew it handily away with a $60 million increase in revenue. Sequels ruled the rest of the top 3, in the second spot the weekend was Kung Fu Panda 2, coming in with $62.2 million. It was a better opening moneywise than the first (again, only due to the four-day weekend this film had over its counterpart), but the numbers are still surprising, considering it is the most family friendly film of the weekend and in 3D to boot. In third, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides dropped nearly half its sales from last week, but still remained impressive with $50.3 million. With over $600 million earned worldwide, it’s more than likely a fifth film will be setting sail before too much longer.

Bridesmaids continues to stun with a third week of solid take, only dropping a small amount to $20.9 million and, along with Pirates and newcomer to the top ten Midnight in Paris, actually picked up some theaters as well. That put it ahead of list veterans Thor ($12 million) and Fast Five ($8.2 million). But look for newcomer Midnight in Paris to shake things up: the Woody Allen romantic comedy may be in its second week, but even without the benefit of wide release (it was showing in a grand total of 58 theaters) it made a whopping $3.5 million, taking in around $60,000 per theater. Even Hangover II didn’t average that.

Comparatively, Rio finally dropped from its 5th place perch, appearing in many more theaters than Midnight, but finally showing signs of age, earning $2.4 million in its seventh week in the Top 10. Rounding out the bottom, the eternal struggle between Jumping the Broom and Something Borrowed continues, Broom making more per weekend (if only by a couple thousand), but still lagging behind Borrowed in total revenue. But, Borrowed finally broke even, making the ill-reviewed wedding film a money maker in the end…if just barely.

NOTE: The Hangover Part II and Kung Fu Panda 2 opened on Thursday as opposed to Friday; however, the totals reflected for all films are based off Friday to Monday figures. Including Thursday, Hangover II earned $137.3 million and Kung Fu Panda 2 earned $68 million.

Weekend Box-Office (May 27 – May 30)

  1. The Hangover Part II…$105.7 million
  2. Kung Fu Panda 2…$62.2 million
  3. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides…$50.3 million
  4. Bridesmaids…$20.9 million
  5. Thor…$12 million
  6. Fast Five…$8.2 million
  7. Midnight in Paris…$3.5 million
  8. Rio…$2.4 million
  9. Jumping the Broom…$2.4 million
  10. Something Borrowed…$2.3 million
Seth Paul

Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."