First look: ‘Funny People’ neither hits nor misses

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‘Funny People’ generated the box office equivalent of a light chuckle, opening to a studio-estimated $23.4 million on its opening weekend.

That’s below what tracking had indicated and what some of the biggest summer comedies starring Adam Sandler (‘You Don’t Mess with the Zohan’) -- and Seth Rogen (‘Superbad’) -- have done. Given the concerns of many in Hollywood that audiences would react very poorly to the Judd Apatow-directed comedy’s dark tone and long running time, however, it’s no disaster for a movie that cost Universal Studios and Relativity Media $75 million to produce.

The opening weekend performance didn’t resolve questions about whether ‘Funny People’ will hold on well at the box office going forward. The Friday-Saturday drop was 15%, a mixed territory that has historically included some movies that played well for a while, like ‘Superbad,’ and others like ‘Wolverine’ that fell off fast.

‘Aliens in the Attic,’ the weekend’s other new picture, was a clear-cut miss, opening to just $7.8 million. Fox and New Regency spent $45 million on the family comedy.

Disney’s guinea pig action flick ‘G-Force’ had a decent second weekend drop of 45%, putting it in third place with $17.1 million. The movie was expensive to produce at $150 million, however, and Disney had been hoping for an even smaller drop to help avoid it turning into a money loser. After solid weekday ticket sales, ‘G-Force’ has now grossed a total of $66.5 million.

‘The Ugly Truth’ didn’t fare as well, declining a more dramatic 53% on its second weekend to $13 million, a signal that it won’t have a long and prosperous box office run like other recent romantic comedies, including ‘The Proposal.’

‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ got a boost from expanding into 162 new Imax theaters this week and declined only 40% on its third weekend to $17.7 million. After initially falling behind predecessor ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ when accounting for inflation, it’s now gaining ground.

-- Ben Fritz