Teaming up the two former SNL comediennes, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, the Universal Pictures' comedy scores big time by landing atop this weekend box office and beating out 'Harold and Kumar' sequel.
- Apr 28, 2008
AceShowbiz - Criticized to be lacking the great touch of other great comedy movies, "Baby Mama" proved critics wrong by debuting strongly at the North American box office. Highlighting on the comedic situation resulting from the different characteristic of the two lead characters, the comedy movie about surrogate motherhood apparently collected more laughters than the two-stoners sequel comedy "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" by landing the top slot of the ticket sales tracker by the end of Sunday, April 27.
Screened in 2,543 theaters across the U.S., the comedy film that brings up the story of an infertile successful business woman who tries to have baby by finding a surrogate mother managed to snag $17.4 million. The success of Michael McCullers's film in overpassing others in terms of revenue marked the first time Universal deliver a number one movie this year as well as the first time comedy film with female lead debuted atop the box office since Kate Hudson's "Fool's Gold" back in early February 2008.
Its solid ticket sales also dismissed critics' question on Universal's decision to deliver their other comedy movie in the wake of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", which is pushed to the fourth place with about $11 million in its second week of viewing. Commenting on the early doubt as well as the result, the studio's president of distribution Nikki Rocco stated, "I think there's something to be said about the Hollywood myth that you can't open a comedy against a comedy. We just proved that to be wrong."
Giving the rationalization to its triumph, Rocco reasoned that the teaming up of the two successful female comediennes, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, has given a boost to it as it managed to win over 68|percent| of female audience with 45|percent| of them were women under 25 years of age. "I think Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were the big draw," explained the studio's topper. "The marketing campaign said to auds, 'You are going to be entertained'."
Following tightly on the second position is "Escape from Guantanamo Bay", the Warner Bros. Pictures' adventure comedy of two slackers accused to be terrorists and their hilarious journey to prove their innocent. Living up to the expectation, the Kal Penn and John Cho-starrer sequel grossed $14.9 million which is almost as much as what "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" collected in total during its entire domestic screening, that is $18.3 million.
Last week champion "The Forbidden Kingdom" was thrown to the third position with $11.2 million and the cume of $38.2 million. Additionally, "Deception", the 20th Century Fox's action thriller starring Ewan McGregor, Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams opened up by nailing the tenth slot at the three days weekend box office with $2.3 million.
