Daily News Channel
To win a summer weekend, a movie usually needs a star name or an action-film punch, or to be a sequel to or the remake of a blockbuster. Except, that is, for any new Pixar release. Rising on the propulsion of a brand name known for quality entertainment, the studio’s tenth animated feature, Up, surpassed most predictions by earning $68.2 million this weekend, according to official projections.
Ron Howard’s "Angels & Demons" soared to a $48 million opening this weekend, narrowly edging out a stellar $43 million second-week performance by "Star Trek," according to estimates by Hollywood.com Box Office. While hardly miraculous, Angels’ solid bow is the second-best opening of Tom Hanks’ career, behind “The Da Vinci Code’s” $77.1 million debut in 2006. Despite receiving better reviews than its predecessor, ‘Angels’ was widely expected to fly lower than ‘Da Vinci’ on account of the cooled-off controversy over the religious subject matter in Dan Brown’s novels