Box Office Analysis: May 26-30

Well this is certainly one for the record books. After a very poor first few months of 2011, the domestic and global box office has suddenly caught fire! It began several weeks ago with the smash hit that is Fast Five and kept going with the Thunder God himself, Thor. Since then we have also had Bridesmaids, which will go down as one of the unexpected winners of 2011. But it's Memorial day weekend when things went from recovery to HUGE -- and you can thank a certain Wolf Pack, a Kung Fu Fighting Panda and the campest pirate of them all. For this weekend has set a record for the biggest Memorial Weekend box office ever at $275M overall for the 4-day holiday. That easily beats 2007 as the highest grossing (when Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End, and Shrek The Third, and Spider-Man 3 ran 1-2-3 for $254M). And 2011 beats 2010's overall total by almost +50%.

The Hangover Part II breaks down like this, Thursday $31.6M, Friday $29.8M, Saturday $30M, Sunday $26M, Three-day Weekend $85M Four-day Memorial Holiday $103, Five-Day Cume $135M, International Cume $59M, Global Cume $194M. Pretty impressive eh! In fact Thursday's $31.6M beat the total opening weekend of the first one several years ago. WOW! This sequel is the biggest 3-day weekend comedy debut ever, beating The Simpsons Movie's $74M. And Hangover II shattering all R-rated comedy records. The previous largest first weekend for an R-rated comedy was Sex And The City. Internationally, Hangover 2 opened in 40 countries to the sum of a not that great $59m. The UK debuted to a massive £10.2m (US $16.4M), making this the all-time biggest opening weekend for a U.S. comedy (all ratings) and the biggest opening weekend to date in 2011 (ahead of Pirates 4). All in all expect the official Hangover III greenlight to come sooner, rather than later.

Despite facing massive competition from the rat pack, Kung Fu Panda 2 had a very solid weekend, probably as good as most industry insiders were predicting. Panda's weekend went as follows: Thursday $5.8M, Friday $13.1M, Saturday $18.6M, Sunday $16.3M, Three-Day Weekend $48M Four-Day Memorial Holiday $60M, Five-Day Cume $66M, International Cume $57M, Global Cume $123M Internationally, Kung Fu Panda 2 opened in 11 international locations this weekend to a massive $57M (only 2M lower than The Hangover's international cume, and Panda had a hell of a lot less screens). Consider this a very successful opening for the animated sequel - I am also predicting a solid second weekend.

In third place at the US domestic box office was Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Captain Jack had a better than expected international launch last weekend but a under performing one at the US box office. This is how Pirates 4 fared this weekend: Friday $10.8M, Saturday $15.1M, Sunday $13.3M, Three-Day Weekend $40M (-45%) Four-Day Memorial Holiday $51M, Cume $164.6M, International Cume $483M, Global Cume $647M. This weekend Pirates Of The Caribbean 4 crossed the $645M global threshhold in only 12 days after releasing into 100% of its international markets, which the studio says matched the industry speed record set by Pirates Of The Caribbean 3 back in 2007. It's the #1 release of 2011 globally and now stands as the 6th biggest overseas release ever for Disney. Its international tally is now $483M and global cume $647M as of through Monday. Expect this to be the highest grossing Pirates movie to date, and similar to the Hangover, expect Pirates 5 to be greenlit sooner rather than later. And a 45% drop week to week is very respectable, given Hangover and Panda are all competing for the same audience. Pirates will take a bigger fall next weekend when X-Men: First Class is unleashed.

In fourth place domestically is the sleeper hit, Bridesmaids. Now in its third week, the female fronted comedy has saw great week to week holds and is expected to crash through the $100M barrier next weekend. Take a look at this weekends results: Friday $4.6M, Saturday $6M, Sunday $6.4M, Three-Day Weekend $17M Four-Day Memorial Holiday $21.4M, Cume $90M. Note though that Bridesmaids has yet to open in several major markets (the UK being the biggest it has yet to open in). I predict a final worldwide cume of close to $150M. Fifth place went to Thor and co. The Thunder God has proved popular with critics and audiences alike and has done solid to good business at the domestic and global box office: Friday $2.4M, Saturday $3.5M, Sunday $3.6M, Three-Day Weekend $9.5M Four-Day Memorial Holiday $12M, Cume $162.3M - add in the international cume and Thor is estimated to be close to the $480M mark. Which represents a higher gross than Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk.

The rest of the North American Box Office looks like this:

6. Fast Five, Friday $1.8M, Saturday $2.4M, Sunday $2.3M, Three-Day Weekend $6.5M Four-Day Memorial Holiday $8.2M, Cume $197.6M Overseas, Fast Five grossed an estimated $13.3M and raised its international total to $346M this weekend. Combined with the domestic estimate, the worldwide cume will reach nearly $545M on Monday - time for my second WOW!

7. Midnight In Paris, Friday $474K, Saturday $775K, Sunday $472K, Three-Day Weekend $2M Four-Day Memorial Holiday $2.6M, Cume $3.5M

8. Something Borrowed, Friday $550K, Saturday $700K, Sunday $750K, Three-Day Weekend $2M Four-Day Memorial Holiday $2.4M, Cume $35.3M

9. Jumping The Broom, Friday $475K, Saturday $800K, Sunday $680K, Three-Day Weekend $1.8M Four-Day Memorial Holiday $2.2M, Cume $35.1M

10. Rio, Friday $420K, Saturday $720K, Sunday $640K, Three-Day Weekend $1.7M Four-Day Memorial Holiday $2.2M, Cume $135.1M, International Cume $321.9M