Girls bent on having fun flocked to the multiplex en masse this weekend, powering “Hannah Montana: The Movie” to a tuneful $34 million opening and contributing to the biggest Easter weekend ever at the North American boxoffice.
With “HMTM,” Disney continued to mine the successful teen franchise that began in 2006 when “Hannah Montana” first hit the Disney Channel. Starring Miley Cyrus and her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, the series established the premise of a regular teen who secretly moonlights as a pop star and begat last year’s hit 3-D concert movie, “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert.”
That film was originally booked in theaters for one week, which contributed to a boxoffice rush and a $31.1 million opening in just 683 theaters. Heading into last weekend, the cautious betting was that the “HMTM” wouldn’t beat that figure even though it was opening in 3,118 theaters.
But the new G-rated film — directed by Peter Chelsom and written by Dan Berendsen, in which Hannah’s dad drags her back to their hometown in Tennessee — showed no signs of diminishing fan interest. Its opening take on Friday of $17.3 million was the highest opening day for a G-rated live-action film in industry history. And its three-day, $34 million haul ranks second, behind only the $40.2 million opening of “Scary Movie 4″ in 2006, among Easter weekend debuts.
“The most important thing is you have a real star here,” Chuck Viane, Disney’s distribution chief, said of Miley Cyrus’ rise. “All of the (people at) Disney Channel built her into the unbelievable star that she is. Peter Chelsom and Dan Berendsen delivered on the highest level. Our marketing crew hit all the right notes, and Miley worked her butt off to promote the film.”
As part of a new program called “Opening Weekend Surprise,” in which Disney promises moviegoers its stars will make surprise appearances over the course of opening weekends, the Cyruses made unannounced in-theater appearances in Salt Lake City and Knoxville.
Testifying to the 16-year-old performer’s tween appeal, 60% of the opening weekend audience was 17 or younger, and families comprised 66% of the audience. Satisfied fans awarded the movie a Cinemascore of A, which points to continuing returns.
Miley Cyrus lands her second No. 1 album on The Billboard 200 as “Breakout” (Hollywood) bows with 371,000 U.S. copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That’s the second-biggest sales week of the year for a female artist, following the 463,000 debut of Mariah Carey’s “E=MC2″ (Island).
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