North American box office: ‘The Proposal’ in wedded bliss with audiences

I despair. I do. Sandra Bullock’s most excruciating romantic comedy ever has given her, by far, her biggest opening weekend ever, almost doubling her previous biggest opening, 2007’s Premonition, which debuted to the tune of $17.6 million.

The Hangover has now sailed past $150 million. Since last weekend, Up sailed past not just $200 million but also $225 million, and also (as Box Office Mojo notes) past Wall-E’s final North American gross of $223.8 million. And it’s only in its fourth week. Up will play for the rest of the summer. So will The Hangover, consider the relatively small drops both films too this weekend.

And guess who was was also up? Star Trek, rising only one percent over last weekend, but still: it’s already the most successful film in the franchise, and it will easily continue on to pass $250 million before it’s done.

Given how well so many movies are doing, however, it sort of a surprise that overall business is up only five percent over the same weekend last year. Considering how gangbusters the winter was, this is practically flat with last year.

The best per-screen average of the weekend went to Woody Allen’s latest, Whatever Works, taking in $29,574 on each of nine screens. The Proposal was a distant second, at $11,004 at each of 3,056 venues.

[numbers via Box Office Mojo]