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Box Office: Hulk Sees Big Green
The Incredible Hulk courtesy Universal Pictures
The Incredible Hulk mustered a more-than-credible $54.5 million to top the weekend box office. The "reboot" fell shy of the $62.1 mil that Ang Lee's critically reviled original collected in its own opening weekend, yet is enjoying far better word-of-mouth and as such is expected to best the 2003 film's $132.2 million in sales.
Last week's champ, Kung Fu Panda, placed second with $34.3 mil.
Rounding out the top five were M. Night's The Happening (rebounding soundly from Lady in the Water, with a 30.5 mil debut), You Don't Mess With the Zohan ($16.4 mil) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ($13.5 mil).
READER RATINGS: How many stars do you give Hulk?
READER RATINGS: How many stars do you give The Happening?
Related:
• Watch Movie Talk's Ken and Maitland review The Incredible Hulk and The Happening.
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Jun 15, 2008 9:00 PM
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I've seen Ang Lee's "Hulk", and Louis
Leterrier's "Incredible Hulk". I can
honestly say the latter is better. L.L.
used a clever mix of the comics and the
70's tv show. Kind of an homage to the
show, you could say. While I'll say
Edward Norton isn't my cup o' tea, he
did really good as Bruce Banner. Liv
Tyler brought her own A game acting to
Betty Ross. I certainly liked the whole
"Clash of the Titans" fight between the
Hulk and Abomination, who was just as
ugly as he was mean. The end scene w/
Tony Stark(Robert Downey,Jr.)is cool.
His proposition for Gen. Ross(William
Hurt)gives you the idea of the direction
Marvel is headed, the Avengers movie.
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Jun 15, 2008 11:57 PM
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Given how lousy Shamaylan's last couple of movies were and the absolutely scathing reviews The Happening received, I am amazed it made as much as it did.
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Jun 16, 2008 7:47 AM
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I think i'm in the minority but I actually enjoyed The Happening *despite the name*. I thought it was quirky and offbeat but I wanted to see where it was going.
I might've enjoyed it more as just a rental though.
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Jun 16, 2008 8:33 AM
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I didn't see Hulk. But I saw The Happening, and it was not scary or suspenseful at all. It was so silly and overwrought, and the acting was terrible. And what was with the incredibly cheesy effects? The arms on the guy in the lion pen were so obviously fake. It makes me wonder if it was goofy on purpose, but I don't think it was. I would have been disgruntled at shelling out 8.50 to see it, except that it was so unintentionally amusing that I can't say I didn't get my money's worth. I will not be paying to see it again though, either in the theater or on DVD.
What happened to Shyamalan? Were his earlier films (Signs, The Village, Unbreakable) not as good as I thought, or has his filmmaking gone down the proverbial tubes? Either way, it's not good.
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Jun 16, 2008 9:22 AM
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I disagree with most of you. The Happening was one of the best comedies so far this year! Who knew Mark Wahlberg could be so funny?
I also saw Hulk and that was suprisingly good; not as good as Iron Man, but a welcome addition to the Marvel universe they're creating.
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Jun 16, 2008 11:14 AM
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$54 million still sounds pretty good, but considering it's likely to make less than half that next weekend and continue tumbling from there, it will be lucky to make back its cost--and while there's more to be made from "ancillary markets," a movie isn't really a hit unless it does a lot better than that. These mass-market, lowest-common-denominator front-loaded fanboy summer spectacles almost automatically make 50 million the first week. I haven't seen this one or the last one (I'm not really much into superhero stories anyway, and the Hulk is a particularly silly one), so I can't really judge the quality, but I wonder if any Hulk movie is ever going to attract the kinds of audiences who like the pathos of Spiderman, Batman, and Superman. The Hulk just doesn't have the right kind of story to break out of the usual niche audience.
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Jun 16, 2008 11:21 AM
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 I thought it was very good. The fighting sequences were on point. Very happy about the Avengers hint. !
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Jun 16, 2008 12:41 PM
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Enjoyed the Hulk & would recommend it. Edward Norton does a great job in everything he's in. Not as good as Iron Man but still worth seeing on the big screen.
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Jun 16, 2008 12:58 PM
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I am kicking myself for paying to see The Happening. Every movie he has made since Sixth Sense has been pure hype and an insult to the viewers intelligence. I walked out of the movie about half way through because I could actually sense my brain cells dying off due to the stupidity of this movie. I am totally amazed that Mark Wahlberg was lured into this vaccuum, hopefully he was paid well for sacrificing his talent on this piece of cinematic crap. Well, the only upside has been that the public has not been made to endure the endless publicity stunts that accompanied the opening of The Village and that The Happening will have a swift demise at the box office.
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Jun 16, 2008 1:45 PM
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psj411, don't forget Unbreakable. That was also a good movie. Not as good as The Sixth Sense, but still quite good. It was with Signs that M. Night Shamalan's movies started to go downhill.
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Jun 16, 2008 3:07 PM
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Well. I dont know about most of you, but I saw them both and loved them.
Hulk had all the good fight scenes, but it hasnt beat out Iron Man in my book yet
As for The Happening. Sure it wasnt as scary as it was let to be, but it was still amazing. I loved it. And there were some parts that I had to cover my eyes.
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Jun 16, 2008 3:13 PM
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Well. I dont know about most of you, but I saw them both and loved them.
Hulk had all the good fight scenes, but it hasnt beat out Iron Man in my book yet
As for The Happening. Sure it wasnt as scary as it was let to be, but it was still amazing. I loved it. And there were some parts that I had to cover my eyes.
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Jun 16, 2008 3:14 PM
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Sorry about posting that more than once
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Jun 16, 2008 3:15 PM
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This incarnation is much better than the Ang Lee version, and opens the door for a sequel. The Happening is not a bad film, but hey, I liked Lady in the Water. That being said, Night needs someone to teach him how to write dialogue and to pick his supporting actors more carefully, because whooo-hooo the dialogue is simply unlistenable at times although the story makes sense and some of the supporting actors seem like they are either on stage or just reading their lines.
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Jun 16, 2008 7:12 PM
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