UPDATE: The revised Sunday numbers are starting to favor The Hangover.  That’s good news for anyone trying to get an R-rated comedy made.

Up killed it again this week, narrowly outearning The Hangover ($44.2 mil to $43.3) and becoming the first two-week number one of 2009 (though these are still “estimated” numbers – The Hangover may still be number one when “actual” numbers are released tomorrow).   Up fell just 35% in its second week.  Oh, and expect to see a lot more Zach Galifianakis.

Land of the Lost earned almost $20 mil for third place, though people are already calling it the “first bomb of summer.”  Elsewhere, Sam Mendes/Dave Eggers/Vendela Vida’s Away We Go made $35,815 per theater in limited release, probably all from semi-employed liberal arts majors.

And finally, Angels & Demons added $6.5 mil domestically, but the big story is that it surpassed $409 million worldwide, the highest grossing film of 2009.  So next time some foreigner tries to give you crap about Americans being dumb, poke your finger in his chest and drunkenly slur something about how it’s his fault Tom Hanks turned into Nic Cage.  Full top 10 after the jump.

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Pixar kept it real yet again over the weekend, with Up taking $68.2 million, Pixar’s third biggest opening ever (behind The Incredibles and Finding Nemo) and the fourth biggest opening of ’09 (behind Star Trek, Wolverine, and 4 Fast 4 Fourious).

Sam Raimi’s similarly well-reviewed Drag Me to Hell earned $16.6 mil and landed in number three (behind Night at the Museum 2) – solid business unless you consider that it was $5 million less than The Strangers made on the same weekend last year. Of course, The Strangers, who could forget The Strangers.  Who the f*ck was in that again?

Terminator Salvation is now down $14 million from Terminator 3: That One with the Chick.  Ouch.  Don’t get me wrong, TermSalv was sucky, but it wasn’t that sucky.  The numbers for Angels & Demons were also way off the Da Vinci Code, so hopefully we can expect Tom Hanks to take off his Nic Cage wig (and forehead) any day now and get back to being a respected actor again.  A freakishly creaseless forehead is the first segno of a career on decline.  See also: Cage, Bob Thornton. (full top 10 after the jump)

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Well folks, I love to rag on Hollywood for being out of ideas, but credit where credit’s due, this weekend there are two big movies opening, and they’re tracking 98 and 94% recommended on rottentomatoes, respectively, which is better than any damn weekend I can remember (that’s fancy writer talk for “I don’t want to look it up”).

Up
I bow before Pixar.  You haters can over-politicize it all you want, but Wall E was one of the best movies I’ve seen in the last few years.  And by many accounts, Up is just as good.  How do they do it?  I hear they bathe in the blood of Christian babies.  It’s true.  I read that somewhere.

Drag Me to Hell
The trailer may not look like much, but keep in mind this is Sam Raimi we’re talking.  Throw out emo Spider-Man and you’ve got movies like Spider-Man 2 (possibly my favorite comic-book movie) and Army of Darkness (GRR, CHAINSAW HAND).  Plus, everyone says it’s good.  And who are you to argue with everyone?  You’re just some asshole on a computer.

Limited Release:

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Here are three new clips from Pixar’s Up, which opens May 29th (keep you ears peeled for Patton Oswalt’s voice as the TV announcer in the first one)*.  The old guy is voiced by Ed Asner and, because it’s Disney-Pixar and not Disney, the kid is voiced by newcomer Jordan Nagai.  Rest assured that if it was Disney, the kid would be a Jonas brother or a Cyrus sibling or some little sh-t from Nickelodeon with Zac Efron hair.  Anyway, the bottom two clips are featurettes, which aren’t as interesting because it’s just nerds talking about their drawings.  Get back in your hole, nerd!  Draw me another adorable robot!

*Correction, apparently it’s actually this guy. Thanks to LucasRuinedMyChildhood for the tip. (A confuse people for Patton all the time. It’s normal to hear his voice when you sleep, right?)
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Here you see the Cash4Gold Super Bowl commercial starring MC Hammer and Ed MCmahon, which I consider the best of the bunch until someone reminds of something better.  Cash4Gold’s clearly come a long way since telling people to pull out grandma’s fillings for money. 

After the jump, I’ve got all the movie ads. A lot of people say Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was the best, others, G.I. Joe. But those people are idiots, probably the same ones who liked that MacGruber commercial. Year One was easily the best, followed by Land of the Lost. Elsewhere, Go Daddy.com once again made me wish I was stupider. And Chester the Cheetah is clearly Tony the Tiger’s ne’er do well, recovering heroin addict brother in law.
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