HULK Gets Angry in THE INCREDIBLE HULK(2008).
© Universal Pictures/Marvel Studios

Related Links

2

Box Office: HULK Flies into Top Spot

The next adaptation of Bruce Banner has beat the competition at the box office in its debut this weekend as expected. Still, that doesn’t make the other debuting film M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening a real loser though. His latest thriller had little chance against the demographics of The Incredible Hulk and Kung Fu Panda and yet it did haul in half its budget from its first three days alone. In fact, the top 3 films for this box office all did rather well pulling in over $30.0 mil.

Leading the charge was Universal Pictures and Marvel Studio’s adaptation of The Incredible Hulk. They debuted the film on 3,505 theaters this weekend and the film’s estimates are currently at $54.5 mil. This has the film averaging $15,560 per showing and pulling in a third of its $150 mil budget in its first three days for the local distributors.

One has to wonder what the studios are thinking about this opening, Maniacs. Ang Lee’s adaptation of the superhero opened on June 20, 2003 on 3,660 theaters and had a better opening with $62.1 mil. It had a lower budget at $137 and a longer running time at 2 hrs and 15 minutes. Basically, Ang Lee’s version pulled in better numbers than Louis Leterriers despite the critical differences between the two. But one can say that the original version affected the performance of the second’s opening. Perhaps.

Following in 2^nd place is a film which is shaping into another profitable venture for Paramount and DreamWorks. Kung Fu Panda, the third major tent pole of this summer for Paramount, hasn’t crossed its $130 budget line yet in its second week but by pulling in another $34.3 mil this weekend in 2^nd place, it’s basically very close domestically at $117.9 mil and will pass it by next weekend. Last weekend, it pulled in $20.4 mil in foreign sales so its worldwide gross is at $138.4 mil.

And now we come to M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film The Happening for 20^th Century Fox. It’s true, the film is debuting in 3^rd place in its opening weekend but can anyone suggest that it had any chance to beat Incredible Hulk and Kung Fu Panda? Against overwhelming demographic odds here, his latest film pulled in $30.5 mil this weekend, half of its $60 mil budget for Fox. With those kind of numbers, it could point to M. Night’s drought after Lady in the Water being over with to a degree. Obviously, this film has a chance of overcoming its budget and being a moderate success if it doesn’t have any large drops the first three weeks of its release.

In the meantime, Sony found its Adam Sander-led You Don’t Mess With the Zohan dropping 57.4% and 2 slots to 4^th place by pulling in another $16.4 mil. The film also has a chance of hitting its budget line even with the large % drop since the studio kept its budget at $90 mil and it has received $68.7 mil in domestic sales so far in 2 weekends of release. The film pulled in another $2.0 mil in foreign sales last weekend so it’s currently sitting at $70.8 mil worldwide.

This leads us to another profitable Paramount distribution of the summer, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The film dropped only 40% in its fourth weekend of release by pulling in another $13.5 mil on its 3,804 theaters. The fourth adventure is obviously a big success for Paramount with it tallying up $275.3 mil domestically. As of last weekend’s foreign numbers, it had another $327.5 mil which means the film is currently sitting at the best worldwide gross of the summer, $602.8 mil.

New Line may have been combined into Warner Bros. but it found a way for two profitable films this spring and summer. They kept the budget low for Harold and Kumar 2 ($12 mil) and wound up profits for it. They then released the big screen adaptation of Sex and the City and its obvious that certain demographics have also proved profitable for the studio in a theatrical climate normally reserved with so many action films. This weekend, “Sex” pulled in another $10.1 mil in 6^th place on its 3,155 theaters. Sure, that’s a 50% drop in its third week of release but film has already made twice its budget for the studio. New Line kept the costs to $65 mil and thus far, it has tallied up $119.9 mil domestically.

Paramount finds itself in 7^th place with its other profitable film of the summer, Iron Man. The film has the highest domestic gross of the summer with $297.4 mil after pulling in another $5.1 mil this weekend. Yep, it looks like it will hit the $300.0 mil domestic mark after all over the next week, pulling in another $1.0 mil here and $400,000 there across the nation. By next weekend, it should be right around that coveted mark for studios. The film is also the second highest worldwide grosser behind Indiana Jones, another Paramount distribution, with its tally at $544.9 mil.

Rogue Pictures also should be pleased with its latest horror film The Strangers doing as well as it did against overwhelming lighter rated fare. The film pulled in another $4.0 mil this weekend in 8^th place but it has long since crossed its budget line of $9 mil. The film has a domestic gross of $45.3 mil in three weekends of release.

Which leads us to a summer tent pole not doing well at all unless you go strictly by worldwide grosses alone and even then, it’s still not doing very well. Disney has already accepted blame for releasing its sequel Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian in the wrong time of year and against stiff competition and it shows with the film only grossing $131.7 mil in five weekends of release. This weekend, it got to that mark by getting another $3.0 mil in 9^th place. The biggest problem with this film is its $200 mil budget line being much too high for the studio. The studio is likely hoping it continues to pull in better foreign numbers over the next few weeks to overcome its domestic shortfalls with the film totaling $101.4 mil as of last weekend. In worldwide grosses, it has $233.1 for Disney.

The final film to talk about is What Happens in Vegas, Fox’s alternative demographic-minded choice which has killed Speed Racer every week since release. In fact, here we are in its sixth weekend of release and the film is wrapping up its run inside the top 10 while Speedy isn’t even in the top 40 estimate brackets. The film is a moderate success for the studio with it grabbing $75.7 mil on a budget of just $35 mil.

Overall Numbers for Summer Tent Poles

Indiana Jones 4 Numbers:

Budget: $185 mil
Opening: $100.3 mil
Domestic: $275.3 mil
Foreign: $327.5 mil
Worldwide: $602.8 mil

Iron Man Numbers:

Budget: $140 mil
Opening: $98.6 mil
Domestic: $297.4 mil
Foreign: $247.4 mil
Worldwide: $544.9 mil

Prince Caspian Numbers:

Budget: $200 mil
Opening: $55.0 mil
Domestic: $131.7 mil
Foreign: $101.4 mil
Worldwide: $233.1 mil

Kung Fu Panda Numbers:

Budget: $150 mil

Budget: $60 mil

Speed Racer Numbers:

Budget: $120 mil
Opening: $18.5 mil
Domestic: $42.3 mil
Foreign: $36.0 mil
Worldwide: $78.3 mil

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl