Weekend box office: "Up" stays aloft

Carl Frederickson's got pretty good legs for an old guy: The second-weekend take for "Up" was only 33% off its mammoth debut. Not only that, but the film's $44.2 million estimated weekend gross squeaked past the $43.2 million opening weekend for the heavily promoted and very well reviewed "The Hangover." Of course, each movie theoretically plays to a completely different audience, but how do you explain the legions of 20-somethings I saw at the Fenway last night when I took the family to see "Up"? And how do you explain that my wife (age unspecified, but let's just say she's not in the target demo) loved "The Hangover"? Both films, it turns out, have the strength to play far beyond their already sizeable niches of "family movie" and "guy flick."

And then there was "Land of the Lost" -- ostensibly a Will Ferrell youth comedy based on a 35-year-old Saturday morning TV show. In other words, a movie with no discernible audience. It performed accordingly: $19.5 million, Ferrell's weakest since "Semi-Pro" last year.

"Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" dropped another 40% in its third weeekend, clearly impacted by the success of "Up," and "Terminator Salvation" clanked down a sharper 50% -- its run is pretty much over here although, not surprisingly, "Salvation" opened like gangbusters overseas, with a further $67.5 million in foreign grosses. "Star Trek," by contrast, is holding up nicely in its fifth week and is closing in on a $250 million total gross.

Among limited releases, Sam Mendes' bohos-look-for-America dramedy "Away We Go" opened strongly in four theaters -- $35,000 per-theater! -- on the strength of a good cast and some glowing reviews (not, notably, the Times' A.O. Scott, who was roused to an unusually high dudgeon for him). It opens in Boston this Friday.

More box office info can be found at Box Office Mojo and from Leonard Klady.