Box-office knows how to party

REEL NEWS: Is the cinema slump over? Well, despite being a pale retread of the original, The Hangover Part IIhas stunned analysts by taking in a jaw-dropping $105.8 million (€73 million) on its opening weekend in the US. That is, by some reckonings, the biggest ever opening for a comedy in that territory. Predictably enough, the film, sequel to the biggest film released in Ireland during 2009, also ate the domestic box office alive.

One might, however, argue that the more surprising result was that attained by Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. Premiered to warm (if not ecstatic) reviews at Cannes, the agreeable fantasy, playing in limited US release, somehow managed to rake in $96,000 (€67,000) per screen. That makes it Allen's best limited debut ever. It's also the fifth biggest ever opening per-screen average for a live-action film. All of which means that Midnight in Parismight actually open here. Sometime. Maybe.