Disney/Pixar’s Up Tops Box Office

LOS ANGELES: The Disney-Pixar collaboration Up dominated the North American box office, with debut ticket sales totaling $68.2 million over the three-day period.

The animated family comedy was the third best opening for Pixar, just behind Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, with $70.5 million and $70.3 million, receptively. Up became Pixar’s tenth film to debut as number one for its opening weekend.

The 3-D animated film, about a lonely widower who ties balloons to his house and flies away for an adventure, sent last week’s box office leader, Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, to a distant second place with some $25.5 million. The Twentieth Century Fox comedy sequel starring Ben Stiller has grossed about $105.3 million in the U.S. and Canada since its opening two weeks ago.

Universal Pictures’ horror film Drag Me To Hell was number three with $16.6 million in ticket sales. Rounding out the top five films this weekend in North America are Terminator Salvation from Warner Bros. and Star Trek from Paramount, with $16.1 million and $12.8 million, respectively.