‘Baby Mama’ delivers a healthy box-office win

updated 4:27 p.m. ET April 27, 2008

LOS ANGELES - “Baby Mama,” Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s comedy about surrogate motherhood, delivered the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office with $18.3 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The Universal Pictures laugher starring the “Saturday Night Live” duo crawled past Warner Bros.’ “Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay,” the goofy stoner flick that opened at No. 2 with $14.6 million.

With a third comedy, Universal’s “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” holding its own at No. 4 with $11 million, audiences looked to be flocking to theaters to get giddy.

“Comedy is definitely king right now,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of tracking firm Media By Numbers LLC. “Audiences are definitely showing an interest in going to the movies and having a good time and having a laugh.”

Box office results Estimated ticket sales for July 18-20 1. “The Dark Knight,” $155.34 million 2. “Mamma Mia!”, $27.6 million 3. “Hancock,” $14 million 4. “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” $11.9 million 5. “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” $10 million 6. “WALL-E,” $9.8 million 7. “Space Chimps,” $7.4 million 8. “Wanted,” $5.1 million 9. “Get Smart,” $4.1 million 10. “Kung Fu Panda,” $1.8 million

Lionsgate’s kung fu movie “The Forbidden Kingdom” starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li fell two notches to No. 3 with $11.2 million.

Critics had questioned Universal’s decision to release “Baby Mama” so closely on the heels of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” thinking it would cannibalize the comedy-seeking public.

“I think there’s something to be said about the Hollywood myth that you can’t open a comedy against a comedy,” said Nikki Rocco, Universal’s president of distribution. “We just proved that to be wrong.”

The success of the first “Harold & Kumar” sequel also showed audiences are not too sensitive to laugh at post-Sept. 11 topics like terrorism. The movie premise begins with the pair getting in trouble trying to sneak a bong on a flight to Amsterdam, then escaping the U.S.-run prison for alleged terrorists in Cuba.

“I don’t think anybody takes this too seriously,” said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros.’ president of theatrical distribution.

The sequel cost just $12 million to make and is already close to beating the entire theatrical take of $18.2 million for the first “Harold & Kumar” movie.

“Hopefully we’ll do somewhere in the $40 million range,” Fellman said.

It was the second straight weekend that has shown better revenue than the previous year, following four “down” weekends, Dergarabedian said. The weekend gross for the films measured was up 17 percent at $91 million.

For the year to date, however, box office revenue is down 2.7 percent at $2.59 billion, with attendance off 5.4 percent.

Still, the recent upswing is “the perfect lead-in to the start of the summer movie season” which gets under way next weekend with the debut of “Iron Man,” Dergarabedian said.

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