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Judd Apatow continues to get the last laugh over Mark Brazill (over and over again)

Kim Hollis: The big news out of the returning films is the solid holdover of Knocked Up. It fell a modest 35% to $20 million, bringing its grand total to $66.2 million. Does this surprise you?

David Mumpower: I am slightly surprised while we await actual numbers instead of estimates. I was chronicling this all week with the daily numbers and the reality is that few sex comedies like this make over $20 million in their second weekend. Wedding Crashers is the only recent summer movie to have such a strong holdover after a $25+ million opening. It's officially a juggernaut, amazing for a $30 million project with no star power whatsoever.

Joel Corcoran: I disagree - I think Knocked Up does have star power. It has that actress from Grey's Anatomy and that guy was in both 40-Year-Old Virgin and You, Me, and Dupree. And compared to the way every other movie this summer has dropped off a cliff in its second week, I'd normally be very surprised. However, I just had a feeling that Knocked Up would be the break-out comedy hit of the summer, so I'm happy with the performance so far (though everyone else should be surprised that I guessed right for a change).

Reagen Sulewski: I don't think you can overlook the novelty of a comedy that actually contains jokes. This is also a film that appeals broadly to both genders, when most films are really just aiming at that 18-45 male demo.





Tim Briody: We all saw this coming from the weekday numbers. It wasn't going to be a 40 Year-Old Virgin (24% second weekend drop for those keeping score at home), but we knew it was going to be solid.

Kim Hollis: I'm not really surprised. I expected word-of-mouth to carry over strongly. And it should continue on that track in the coming weeks, particularly since quality at the box office has been lacking since the beginning of May (with a couple of exceptions, of course). And since it started better than The 40 Year-Old Virgin, it was likely to be looking at a headier drop.

David Mumpower: And if we are going to compare The 40 Year-Old Virgin to this, it's important to note that the actual dollars for their second weekends are $16.3 million for Virgin versus $20.0 million for Knocked Up. Also, Virgin was only at $48.6 million after 10 days as opposed to Knocked Up's $66.2 million...and Virgin wound up with almost $110 million. Knocked Up is keeping some heady company.

Kim Hollis: I wonder if the goodwill from Knocked Up will carry over to make Superbad a big hit.

Tim Briody: I started seeing ads for Superbad mentioning "from the people behind Knocked Up," on Monday, which has to be some sort of record.

Kim Hollis: They've done some interesting cross viral marketing, including the funny Michael Cera Knocked Up audition.

David Mumpower: I also like the way Superbad has taken advantage of the red band trailer's negative stigma by airing it online only.

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