User blog:Ceauntay/TRUE JACKSON, VP: THE MOVIE and THE HANGOVER PART 2 Has Huge Opening Days: Box Office


 * Jennette McCurdy, Keke Palmer, True Jackson, VP: The Movie

Pundits and movie fans alike are always complaining that Hollywood keeps churning out too many remakes and sequels; that moviemakers have lots their imagination, etc. etc. Well, perhaps there's a good rea$on for Hollywood's "lack of imagination": All three top grossers at the North American box office on pre-Memorial Day Thursday, May 26, 2011, were sequels: The Hangover Part II, Kung Fu Panda 2, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Sonic X: The Final Stand, and this year's first film adaptation of the TV show True Jackson, VP: The Movie.

Starring Keke Palmer, Ashley Argota, Matt Shively, Robbie Amell, Danielle Bisutti, Greg Proops, Ron Butler, Emily Osment, Jennette McCurdy and Matthew Underwood, True Jackson, VP: The Movie grossed a strong $14.5m on its first day in theaters on Thursday in a whooping 3,729 locations, according to Box Office Mojo.

That's the fifth highest opening day ever for a live-action G rated movie. The world record is iCarly: The Movie ($19.3m). The film will now be on its way to a huge opening weekend of $60m (Thu-Mon). It will ended up with more than $100 million like iCarly: The Movie did.

Starring Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha, and Ken Jeong, Todd Phillips' The Hangover 2 brought in a whopping $31.61m at 3,615 locations on Thursday topping the box office. That's the highest-grossing opening day ever for a live-action comedy — remember, the aforementioned $31.61m includes about $10.4m from Wednesday midnight screenings — and nearly twice the $16.7m the original The Hangover earned on its Friday debut two years ago. That's also the third best Thursday take ever (not adjusted for inflation), behind Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith's $50.01m in 2005 and The Matrix Reloaded's $37.5m in 2003. Even more importantly, The Hangover 2's opening-day take indicates that the widely panned comedy will end up collecting more than $300m domestically. Adjusted for inflation, every single one of the ten biggest Thursday grossers cumed at more than $300m. (The one exception — not adjusted for inflation — was The Matrix Reloaded, which in 2003 earned $281.6m, or approximately $367m today.) The Hangover 2's per-theater average was $8,744.

Photo: True Jackson, VP: The Movie (Melinda Sue Gordon / Paramount Pictures)