Badly in need of a breakout hit after successive misfires, Universal will have to keep waiting.
Its 216-minute Judd Apatow dramedy “Funny People” opened to $23.4 million this weekend, which was good enough to lead the domestic box office and in line with other Apatow openings.
However, with the film declining 15% on Saturday from its $8.6 million opening Friday, “Funny People” did not achieve the four-quadrant breakout success that some tracking estimates had predicted.
For her part, Nikki Rocco, president of domestic distribution for Universal, said such prognostications – which put the film above the $25 million for its first weekend — were unreasonable, given that “Funny People,” which stars Adam Sandler as a terminally ill comedian, represents a novel, far more serious offering from Apatow than audiences are used to.