(source:boxofficemojo.com)

This is one of those weekends that leaves everybody at the studios happy.

At number one we have Chuck and Larry, with $34 million. This is a bit below Sandler’s average with straight comedies over the last few years, but it’s still a respectable number. And being in the top does offer some bragging rights.

The other opener of the weekend was Hairspray, which managed a very solid $27 million, good enough for third place. It’s a little difficult to compare Hairspray’s performance with that of other musicals because the pattern for musicals over the last few years has been to open in a limited number of theaters. However, this weekend’s take pretty much guarantees that Hairspray will make it to $75 million before the end of it’s run, which would put it ahead of most modern musicals, the exceptions being Dreamgirls and Chicago.

I’m interested in seeing how Hairspray holds up over the following weekends. The good reviews and the studio polling seem to indicate that the movie will have good word of mouth, which could translate into some good legs. But how good? I’m guessing the movie’s total will fall between $75 million and $150 million when all is said and done, but I wouldn’t venture any guesses beyond that right now.

All of the other movies had good holds. Live Free or Die Hard is impressing me with it’s legs and Transformers is dropping more slowly than I expected, but overall good numbers for everybody.