Score one for comedy: this past weekend, The Heat made a whopping $40 million, easily taking down the Channing Tatum/Jamie Foxx/explosions action movie White House Down, which pulled in a mere $25.7 million. It puts it on track to potentially be the biggest comedy of the year so far: Identity Thief, which holds that spot at the moment with $171 million made so far, had a $34.5 million opening weekend. Of course, The Hangover Part III opened with a slightly higher $41.6 million opening weekend, but awful reviews and terrible word of mouth killed most of its momentum.
However it ends up doing, it’s pretty awesome to see a comedy fronted by two women — the only major comedy without a man starring in it this summer! — do so well against a traditional dudefest summer blockbuster. Maybe Hollywood is finally starting to notice that yes, female-fronted comedies can do just as well, if not better, than their male-focused counterparts. Who would’ve thought?!
