Expect a "Hangover" this weekend at the box office
(CBS/What's Trending) - Memorial weekend is one of the biggest movie-going periods of the year, and 2011 looks to get us back on track after a dismal showing in 2010. Leading the charge is Warner Bros. "Hangover: Part II," the much-anticipated follow up to the beloved first installment released in 2009 that went on to become the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all-time and the sixth highest grossing film released that year.
Bringing together the original cast including Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis, director Todd Phillips has transplanted the fun to Thailand and has taken the R-rated situations to sometimes cringe-worthy levels.
The film has taken off with an incredible start, raking in the largest midnight haul for any R-rated film with $10.4 million in 2,600 theaters beginning at 12:01 on Thursday morning. This beats the previous record set by "Paranormal Activity 2," which earned an impressive $6.3 million back in October of 2010. Given this auspicious start, the film has a real shot at beating the record for biggest opening day for an R-rated film, which is held by Warner Bros.'" The Matrix Reloaded" and its $42. 5 million opening day gross on Thursday May 15, 2003.The highest grossing Memorial weekend was back in 2007 with a staggering $254.6 million, when "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Shrek the Third" and "Spider-Man 3" led the box office. In comparison, last year's Holiday frame dipped to the third lowest level in nearly 20 years with just $192.2 million. However, this year's combination of two strong newcomers and a solid crop of current releases will easily boost revenues to well beyond $200 million and possibly rival the record levels set in 2007.
Despite the big bucks, online critics have savaged the film almost universally. Michelle Solomon, contributing writer for KSAT.com in the "At the Movies" section, titles her review "The Wolfpack Loses Its Mojo In Sequel." She goes on to state, "Sequels are fun and worthwhile when something in the lineup changes -- a twist in the story, perhaps. But "The Hangover Part II" suffers from being a carbon copy imitator of its first incarnation, yet not nearly half as witty."
And, that sums up pretty much every review of the film. It will still enjoy a Teflon-like imperviousness to all the bad reviews and will post huge numbers all weekend long; after all, it has 1,570,798 likes on Facebook. The question is how will the film hold up in the coming weeks?
Animated films have provided many of the success stories of the first quarter with "Gnomeo and Juliet," "Hop," Rango" and "Rio" all drawing huge audiences looking for family appropriate entertainment. Dreamworks Animation's "Kung Fu Panda 2" in 3-D from Paramount Pictures is the second installment in the franchise and follows the 2008 original which earned over $630 million in global revenue. Opening on Thursday, the film should kick its way to $65 million to $70 million during the five days through the Monday holiday.
Online reviews have been fairly strong for the martial arts practicing Panda with Los Angeles Time critic Betsey Sharkey leading her review with "Po returns in fine, paunchy form under Jennifer Yuh Nelson's direction."And, people like this move: 3,826,767 have clicked to button on Facebook to be exact.