"I prefer the baby," Galifianakis has said of his sidekick in the first film. "Simply because I love kids and babies. The monkey is more controlling and has it more his way. A baby you can just hold. But this monkey…every time I get a question about that monkey I keep thinking, “Oh, god. I’m doing a press junket and I have to talk about working with a monkey. That is what is has come to."
Courtesy of Warner BrosMost reviewers panned Todd Phillips’ The Hangover Part II, but moviegoers gave it an A- CinemaScore. Not only that, the Warner Bros. sequel is so popular, it scored the biggest opening of all time for any comedy. It’s also one of the top Memorial Day launches in history.
Hangover grossed $135 million in its five-day domestic debut, the best showing of the year in North America, which has been plagued by a persistent box-office slump.
According to exit polling by market research firm CinemaScore, 65% of those turning out for the R-rated comedy were attracted by the type of movie it was, and 54% were interested in the subject matter.
Studio executives have long groused about the disparity between reviews and what consumers like. And though they’re still bothered by bad notices, they know certain sorts of movies are “review proof.” There’s no better example than Hangover Part II.
There was such anticipation for the movie that no one was going to miss out, period.
“Many of the industry’s largest box-office success stories were not favorites of the critics,” notes one studio chief, “just the moviegoing audiences.”
Hangover Part II didn’t do too shabby overseas either, grossing $70.1 million from 40 countries and bringing the movie’s total global launch to $205.1 million.
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