Monday, June 16, 2008
Judged against Spider-Man, Hulk came up short. Judged against Hulk, The Incredible Hulk came up big. The franchise restart, starring Edward Norton, topped the weekend box office with $54.5 million, according to Exhibitor Relations estimates today. While that's about $8 million less than what Ang Lee's Hulk opened with in 2003, the gross is considered a victory for Universal Pictures, which had to overcome, well, Ang Lee's Hulk.
"There were a lot of naysayers out there when we said we were doing this," Nikki Rocco, Universal's president of domestic distribution, said today. "The Hulk smashed those naysayers."
M. Night Shyamalan also won at the expectations game. While his latest horror-thriller, The Happening, settled for the bronze with its third-place debut, its $30.5 million opening represented substantial improvement over the filmmaker's 2006 disappointment, Lady in the Water.
Kung Fu Panda, meanwhile, stayed strong in its second weekend, hauling in another $34.3 million and finishing second.
It was, however, The Incredible Hulk that dominated, accounting for nearly one-third of all ticket sales for the weekend's top movies.
Here's a recap of the top-grossing weekend films based on Friday-Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
1. The Incredible Hulk, $54.5 million
2. Kung Fu Panda, $34.3 million
3. The Happening, $30.5 million
4. You Don't Mess With the Zohan, $16.4 million
5. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, $13.5 million
6. Sex and the City, $10.2 million
7. Iron Man, $5.1 million
8. The Strangers, $4.1 million
9. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, $3 million
10. What Happens in Vegas, $1.7 million
E!online
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment