The Hangover and Up triumphed again at the box office this weekend, taking $33 million and $30 million respectively. New opener The Taking of Pelham 123 had to settle for third place with $25m. Perhaps because its title sounds less like a fast-paced action thriller than a can of de-icer being pinched from a corner shop.

The Hangover is the big story here. It has grossed $105m in ten days, significantly more than recent comedy smashes Knocked Up and Wedding Crashers in the same time frame. Also its production budget was only $35m. Be in no doubt there will be a sequel.

Land Of The Lost dropped from 3rd to 5th in its second week for a total of $34m. That’s a big problem when the budget is north of $100m. Will Ferrell comedies don’t need special fx, it only makes them a bigger financial risk. It was also a big mistake to replace the family unit of the original with a trio of sex hungry adults.

But the biggest tank of the week is, the now ironically titled, Imagine That which opened with just $5m. Somehow they managed to spend $55m on this, so somebody somewhere is only going to be able to afford egg sandwiches for the rest of their life. Hopefully this will shake Eddie Murphy out of his godawful career path, encourage him to stop with the lazy family junk and come back to comedy. Imagine That suffered from the poorest concept in movie history – according to the trailers the pitch was ‘Eddie Murphy has a daughter’. That’s not enough folks. Even if they do do some cooking together.

U.S. Weekend Box Office (June 12-14)
1. [1.] The Hangover — $33m [total $105m]
2. [2.] Up — $30m [total $187m]
3. [New] The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 — $25m
4. [4.] Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian — $9m [total $143m]
5. [3.] Land of the Lost — $9m [total $34m]
6. [New] Imagine That — $5m
7. [5.] Star Trek — $5m [total $232m]
8. [6.] Terminator Salvation — $4m [total $113m]
9. [8.] Angels & Demons — $4m [total $123m]
10. [7.] Drag Me to Hell — $3m [total $35m]

Source: Box Office Mojo