The 2009 comedy film directed by Todd Phillips The Hangover has caught the attention of audiences in India with huge box office success and many Indian filmmakers craving to remake it, notably producer Firoz Nadiadwala, who claims to have bought the rights from Warner Bros.
Warner Brothers (WB India) said the film had raked in Rs 6.8 crores at the box office in India, with a limited release of only 42 prints in 51 screens. Fans of the movie are very active on Twitter, Facebook and Orkut. One fans group on Facebook claims over 1.73 million members.
The film was released in North America on June 5, 2009. The story revolves around four friends who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. Doug Billings (Justin Bartha) is about to be married. So his friends Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper, as a schoolteacher bored of the married life), Stu Price (Ed Helms, as a dentist with a strict and controlling girlfriend) and Doug's socially inept soon to be brother-in-law Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis) take him to Las Vegas for a bachelor party.
The four friends book into a hotel suite and, then sneak to the roof of the hotel and toast to the night ahead. The next morning the friends, minus the groom Doug Billings, wake up in the suite with no memory of what happened the previous night. All they could understand is that Doug is missing, Stu has lost a tooth, there is a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet and their hotel suite is in a shambles. First they think that Doug might have gone for breakfast, but they worry about him when they find his phone left in the room. Alan discovers Stu's tooth in his pocket and a VIP parking pass and Stu finds an ATM receipt for $800, all indications of strange happenings.
What follows next is a series of hilarious situations in the three friends’ efforts to locate Doug, and other consequences of what happened the night before. The real action hilarious scenes are bound to keep you on the edge of the seat till the end.
The film produced at a budget of $35 million (between $25 million and $30 million according to LA Times) had a marketing budget of $40 million. On the first day of release the film grossed $16.5 million for 4,500 screens at 3,269 sites, beating out the big budgeted Land of the Lost. The Hangover finished first for the weekend with $45.0 million. The film’s box office performance surprised even Warner Bros, which only hoped it would finish third behind Up and Land of the Lost.
Since its release, the film has earned total US gross $248,857,162 and $98,500,000 internationally, i.e., a worldwide Gross $347,357,162 according to The Numbers, making it the highest grossing R-rated comedy ever in the US, breaking the record held by Beverly Hills Cop for 25 years. The film has received primarily positive reviews, and it is a huge hit with audiences and most of the critics.
Trivia: Helms's missing tooth is real, not created with prosthetics or visual effects but is natural. Helms never had an adult incisor, and got a dental implant as a teenager which was removed for the filming.
As reports say, Warner Bros is planning a sequel for the film. Production of The Hangover 2 will begin in October 2010 for an expected early 2011 release.
