Friday Box Office Report-Pixar’s UP Sails To #1 with 21.4 Million

If last weekend’s box office represented a true fight between “Terminator Salvation” and “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”, then this week’s receipts bring us back to a more familiar summer scenario: one clear front-runner poised to pummel one counter-programming ‘also-ran’ option.  “Up”, the 10^th feature from the always-outstanding Pixar Studios, blew into theaters with a $21.4 million take on Friday – the second best debut for the studio after “Wall-E” took in $23.2 million last June.  A weekend total above $65 million should pose no problem for Pixar, especially considering that nearly half of the 3,766 bookings for “Up” are in the more-costly 3D venues.  Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me to Hell”, meanwhile, brought in $6.4 million from 2,508 bookings and should be very happy to get above $18 million by Sunday.  Check back tomorrow to see how it all plays out.