[By Jeffrey Jolson, Hollywood Today]

For $140 million, I’d suffer through a Thailand-sized Hangover, and get the face tattoo as well. The sequel to the hit woke up to become the biggest-selling R-rated comedy opening ever and Warner Bros. won’t need any aspirin, its cure will be projected 5-day take of nearly $140 million.  It may not have been in 3D, but The Hangover Part 2 led the three-day weekend with $87M, with it’s weekday take and Memorial Day itself to sleep it off with another $20M-plus.

The movie almost hit a stumbling block as the tattoo artist who did the original Mike Tyson tattoo copied by Ed Helms’ character in a drunken stupor claimed he held an artistic copyright on the design and threatened to slap an injunction on the film. Warner Bros. wasn’t going to let that happen and had three things going for it: the studio has more lawyers than the tattoo guy, who quickly claimed it was covered as a legal parody; it could just pay for the damned tattoo; and if all else failed, Tyson himself is in the film briefly and could pay a little visit to the tattoo artist. The former world heavyweight can be just a tad intimidating when he wants to be.

Hangover 2 led what will be the top Memorial Weekend ever, likely to come in about $270 million overall. That even beats the former record-holder, the $240M booty in 2007 from Pirates if the Caribbean 3, Spider-man 3 and Shrek 3.  Just in time to save the ailing movie industry, who got a big assist from the oil business of all things. People saw more films as they were traveling less due to high gas prices.

Helping out this year was Kung-fu Panda 2 (one of three top titles in 3D), whose lead voice is chimed by Jack Black.  The 3-day weekend pulled in $48 million and it kicked in another $20M for its 5-day total of $68M.

Pirates of the Caribbean 4 in 3D hit a speed record of $500 million worldwide in just 10 days. Disney says shiver our timbers, that’s on par with past record of Pirates 3 in 2007 and the biggest Pirate ever. So the studio had the last “argh” over critics who insist the film the film was sluggish compared to past Pirates.

Johnny Depp and crew hauled in a booty of $40M domestic on the 3-day weekend bringing its U.S. chest to $153M from 4,164 screens.

Bridesmaids just married into an estimated $90 million dowry, with $22M coming from the long weekend.

Another 3D film, Thor, hammered out $11M for Memorial Day weekend, bringing Valhalla (and Marvel/Disney/Paramount) a domestic take of about $161M. See related Hollywood Today story on the impact of 3D movies on the movie business.

Coming in at No. 6 was Fast Five, which is about to speed past some franchise records itself. With its holiday take of $9M, it is about to pass slower traffic to hit $200M domestic, plus another $350M from overseas movie-goers.

Woody Allen now has another Top 10 film, as Midnight in Paris came in No.7 with $2.4 million. That may not seem like a lot, but consider he did it in just 58 theaters, compared to the 3,000 and 4,000 the top films had to work with. Way to go Woody!
WEEKEND TOP 5 STUDIO ESTIMATES, MAY 27-29, 2011

Rank. Movie Title (Distributor)
Weekend Gross | Theaters | Total Gross | Week #

1. The Hangover Part II (Warner Bros.)
$86.5 million | 3,615 | $118.1 million | 1

2. Kung Fu Panda 2 (Paramount (DreamWorks))
$48.0 million | 3,925 | $53.8 million | 1

3. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Buena Vista)
$39.3 million | 4,164 | $152.9 million | 2

4. Bridesmaids (Universal)
$16.4 million | 2,958 | $85.0 million | 3

5. Thor (Paramount)
$9.4 million | 3,296 | $159.7 million | 4

Sources boxofficemojo.com and deadline.com

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