The Walt Disney Co romantic comedy sold an estimated $34.1 mn worth of tickets during the three-day period beginning June 19.
“It definitely met and exceeded our expectations,” said Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group. “In a summer with a lot of sequels, it’s always nice to have an original movie.”

The Proposal also earned $10 mn from 10 foreign markets, with No. 1 bows in Australia ($3.3 mn) and Russia ($2.8 mn) leading the way.
Bullock last went to No. 1 in North America with the 1999 film Forces Of Nature, which co-starred Ben Affleck. Her previous best opening was $17.6 mn for her most recent film, Premonition, in March 2007.
The 44-year-old actress stars as a book-executive who fakes an engagement to her lowly assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to avoid deportation to her native Canada. The laughs ensue when she meets his parents, veteran Betty White stealing the show. Anne Fletcher (27 Dresses) directed. Disney declined to reveal the budget.

Critics’ reviews were mixed, but exit surveys were strong, Disney said. Men accounted for 37 per cent of the audience, a surprisingly large turnout for a romantic comedy.
Its reign likely will be short-lived, though, with Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen opening worldwide on Wednesday through Viacom Inc’s Paramount Pictures.

HANGOVER PERSISTS
After two weekends at No. 1, The Hangover slipped to No. 2 with $26.9 mn. The hit comedy has banked $152.9 mn, according to Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros. Pictures.
The only other new release in the top 10 was the Jack Black prehistoric comedy Year One, which came in at No. 4 with $20.2 mn, in line with the expectations of its distributor, Sony Corp’s Columbia Pictures.

The $60 mn film, from Groundhog Day director Harold Ramis, stars Black and Michael Cera (Juno) as hunter-gatherers banished from their primitive village.
Just ahead at No. 3, was Disney’s Pixar-produced cartoon Up with $21.3 mn. It has earned $224.1 mn after four weekends, surpassing the $223.8 mn lifetime total of Pixar’s 2008 Oscar-winning smash WALL-E.
Zoradi said he expected Up to pass 2004’s The Incredibles ($261 mn) to become the second-biggest Pixar film after 2003’s Finding Nemo ($340 mn).

Rounding out the top five was Columbia’s The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3 with $11.3 mn. Denzel Washington and John Travolta star in the hijacking thriller, which has earned $43.3 mn after 10 days.
Director Woody Allen’s 40th film, Whatever Works, starring Seinfeld co-creator Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood, earned $281,000 from nine theatres in New York and Los Angeles.