Disney’s The Proposal opened with a stronger than expected $33.63 million to take first place at the box office this weekend. The romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds was helped greatly by a strong marketing campaign and by the lack of films aimed directly at female audiences so far this summer. The Proposal topped the $27.79 million February debut of He’s Just Not That Into You to deliver the largest opening weekend for a romantic comedy in 2009 to date. The opening weekend performance of The Proposal was also the best ever for Bullock, both in unadjusted and inflation adjusted terms. Bullock’s films typically hold over very well after their respective opening weekends, which is good news for The Proposal going forward.

Although it dropped to second this weekend, The Hangover displayed tremendous holding power in its third weekend of release, especially given that two new comedies entered the marketplace. The R-rated comedy blockbuster from Warner Bros. grossed $26.75 million, which was down a slim 18 percent. Like UP last weekend, The Hangover experienced an even smaller decline in its third weekend than it did in its second weekend, which is something that rarely happens to blockbuster level films that hold up extremely well in their second weekend. The Hangover has grossed $152.82 million in 17 days, which means it won’t have a problem crossing the $200 million mark, even if it takes a bit of a hit from Paramount’s Transformers 2 next weekend.

In addition to claiming first place, Disney also claimed third place as UP remained strong. The latest computer animated blockbuster from Pixar grossed $23.49 million, which was down only 24 percent from last weekend. The final figure for UP came in significantly higher than the studio’s Sunday estimate, thanks to very strong business on Father’s Day. UP has exceeded pre-release expectations by grossing $226.27 million in 24 days, which ranks the film as the second highest grossing release of 2009 thus far (behind only Paramount’s Star Trek). UP is running just 1 percent behind the pace of 2003’s Finding Nemo, but the gap between the two films should widen in the near future with competition from Transformers 2 and Fox’s Ice Age 3.

Sony’s Year One opened on the lower end of expectations with $19.61 million. The PG-13 comedy starring Jack Black and Michael Cera opened with $8.46 million on Friday, but fell off a harsh 24 percent on Saturday. Friday’s gross made up a sizable 43 percent of the weekend take, which isn’t a good sign for the film going forward. Year One opened in line with the $19.62 million debut of 2003’s School of Rock, but significantly below the $28.31 million debut of 2006’s Nacho Libre. Although it played well with younger males, Year One was clearly hurt by the lasting success of The Hangover with older moviegoers.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, also from Sony, was down a very disappointing 49 percent in its second weekend of release. After opening on the lower end of expectations last weekend, the remake starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta has showcased weaker than anticipated holding power so far. The Taking of Pelham is currently running 16 percent ahead of the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate and is on pace to finish its run with a final gross in the area of $70 million to $75 million.

Despite playing in 331 fewer locations than last weekend, Star Trek was up a very impressive 1 percent. The sci-fi blockbuster was helped out by a very strong Father’s Day performance on Sunday. Star Trek has grossed $240.26 million to date, which now places it ahead of the $239.12 million adjusted gross of 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

This weekend’s combined box office of just under $151 million was up a solid 5 percent over the same weekend in 2008. After some rare slowing for 2009 last weekend, the total box office rebounded with a 9 percent increase over last weekend.