The Tina Fey-Amy Poehler comedy "Baby Mama" delivered for Universal Pictures, topping the weekend box office with estimated ticket sales of $18.3 million despite competition from two other high-profile comedies.
Some analysts and executives at rival studios had expressed doubts about Universal's strategy of releasing its odd couple story a week after opening another female-skewing comedy, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," and on the same weekend as the Warner Bros. stoner comedy "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay," which opened at No. 2 with $14.6 million.
The strong launch for "Baby Mama" -- coupled with a modest drop for producer Judd Apatow's "Sarah Marshall" in its second weekend -- vindicated the strategy.
"This pokes a huge hole in that old myth that you can't open two comedies back to back or one comedy against another," said Nikki Rocco, Universal's president of domestic distribution. "The market did expand."
Overall, the industry ended a dismal spring season on an up note, as box-office revenue rose from the same weekend a year earlier for the second straight time. Heading into summer, year-to-date revenue is down about 3% from 2007 and attendance is off 5%, according to data tracker Media by Numbers.
The PG-13-rated "Baby Mama," produced for about $30 million, drew an audience estimated at 68% female and 45% younger than 25, the studio said.
Meanwhile, the R-rated "Harold & Kumar," a sequel to the cult favorite "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle," skewed heavily male and younger than 35, as expected.
The film, produced for about $12 million, will surpass the original at the box office within its first week, said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution at Warner Bros. The first one, released in July 2004, opened with $5.5 million and grossed $18.3 million altogether in the U.S. and Canada before becoming a hot-selling DVD.
The sequel averaged an A-minus in audience surveys taken by CinemaScore, which bodes well for word of mouth. "Baby Mama" got a B-plus.
"Harold" was the first release of a New Line Cinema production through Warner Bros. since New Line was recently folded into its bigger sibling by corporate parent Time Warner Inc. Warner will also handle this summer's "Sex and the City" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D."
Last weekend's top movie, the Jackie Chan-Jet Li adventure "The Forbidden Kingdom" from Lionsgate Films and Weinstein Co., hauled in an additional $11.2 million with a drop of 48%, bringing its 10-day total to $38.3 million.
