Weekend Estimates: Funny People Wins Weekend

August 2, 2009

On a weekend that was modest overall for the industry, Funny People took top spot on the box office chart with a $23.4 million opening weekend, according to Universal's Sunday estimate. The movie is Judd Apatow's third directorial effort, and the opening falls in the middle of his range so far, ahead of The 40-Year-Old Virgin's $21.4 million but some way behind the $30.7 million opening enjoyed by Knocked Up. It's also something of a disappointment for an Adam Sandler movie, as he has become more accustomed to $30 million plus openings.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince stayed in second place, thanks in part to its debut in IMAX theaters (where it earned $3.2 million on 166 screens). The sixth movie in the franchise now has $255 million in total and still has a shot at topping $300 million.

G-Force fell a reasonable 46% to finish third with $17.1 million while The Ugly Truth was off a more substantial 53% to land fourth with $13 million.

Aliens in the Attic opened with a somewaht disappointing $7.8 million, although that's well in line with what the studio was expecting. The weekend's other wide opener, The Collector, opened with an estimated $3.6 million, somewhat ahead of Freestyle's expectations, although its relatively small theater count kept it out of the top 10.

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, G-Force, The Ugly Truth, Funny People, Aliens in the Attic, The Collector