It appeared fairly certain Saturday that Warner Bros.’ surprise hit The Hangover would hang on to its box-office lead for a second straight week. The studio estimated that the no-big-star comedy earned $10.44 million on Friday, 18 percent ahead of its closest competitors, Disney/Pixar’s Up and Sony/Columbia’s The Taking of Pelham 123. The two also-rans were battling it out for second place, with Disney estimating that Up earned a solid $8.85 million in its third Friday and Sony figuring that Pelham took in $8.25 million. However, analysts cautioned that either of those movies could wind up in second place once weekend ticket sales are finally counted. By contrast, Paramount’s Imagine That appeared destined to become an even sorrier flop than analysts had anticipated. The Eddie Murphy comedy took in only $1.83 million on Friday, putting it in sixth place behind the second week of another flop, Universal’s Land of the Lost, which took in $2.92 million.

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