THE HANGOVER beats out BEVERLY HILLS COP For Top Grossing R-rated Comedy

As of yesterday, “The Hangover” has become the #1 grossing R-rated comedy of all time. The widely successful comedy, directed by Todd Phillips, broke the record that has been held by the Eddie Murphy film “Beverly Hills Cop” for over 25 years. As of today, “The Hangover” has grossed almost $236 million dollars after over six weeks in theaters. Dan Fellman, President of Domestic Distribution for Warner Brothers said, “This is one record I don’t think any of us anticipated crossing. We continue to be amazed by the resilience of ‘The Hangover’ in a very competitive summer season, and the buzz just keeps building as word-of-mouth shows no sign of diminishing.”

Check out our review of THE HANGOVER here.

It is no surprise that “The Hangover” has done well; the fact that the cast signed on for the sequel before the first movie was even released in theaters says something. But I don’t think anyone knew that it would do THIS well.

Check out the official press release below:
BURBANK, CA – July 19, 2009 – Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ summer smash hit “The Hangover” has added another milestone to its record-breaking run. On Sunday, July 19th, the Todd Phillips-directed comedy became the top-grossing R-rated comedy of all time, breaking the record previously held by “Beverly Hills Cop,” which has stood for almost 25 years. To date, the film has earned an astounding estimated $235.9 million and is still drawing large audiences after more than six weeks in release.

The announcement was made by Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. Pictures President of Domestic Distribution, who said, “This is one record I don’t think any of us anticipated crossing. We continue to be amazed by the resilience of ‘The Hangover’ in a very competitive summer season, and the buzz just keeps building as word-of-mouth shows no sign of diminishing.”

Jeff Robinov, President of Warner Bros. Pictures Group, stated, “Audiences are obviously in a mood to laugh and ‘The Hangover’ more than fits that bill. We are all understandably thrilled, but the person who deserves the most credit is the remarkable Todd Phillips. We applaud him and the amazing cast, along with everyone who had a hand in making the film.”

Filmmaker Todd Phillips remarked, “I couldn’t be happier that audiences everywhere are having as much fun watching ‘The Hangover’ as we had making it. The response to the movie has been overwhelming, and I want to thank my entire cast and crew and, of course, all our friends at Warner Bros.”

From director Todd Phillips, “The Hangover” is a new comedy about a bachelor party gone horribly wrong. Two days before his wedding, Doug (Justin Bartha) and his three buddies (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis) drive to Las Vegas for a blow-out night they’ll never forget. But when the three groomsmen wake up the next morning with pounding headaches, they can’t remember a thing. Their posh hotel suite is beyond trashed and the groom is nowhere to be found. With no clue about what happened and little time to spare, the trio must attempt to retrace their bad decisions from the night before in order to figure out where things went wrong and hopefully get Doug back to L.A. in time for his wedding. However, the more they begin to uncover, the more they realize just how much trouble they’re really in.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Legendary Pictures, a Green Hat Films Production of a Todd Phillips Movie: “The Hangover,” starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha and Jeffrey Tambor. The film is directed by Phillips from a screenplay by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore. Todd Phillips and Dan Goldberg produced, with Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, William Fay, Scott Budnick, Chris Bender and J.C. Spink serving as executive producers.

“The Hangover” is rated R for pervasive language, sexual content including nudity, and some drug material.

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