By Ryan Parsons | Image property of Marvel, Variety
The Incredible Hulk
As expected, Marvel's The Incredible Hulk dominated the box office during its opening bow. Though M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening took a beating, it still did pretty well, considering.
Box Office Report: The Incredible Hulk
Actually, some might call it a tie between The Incredible Hulk and The Happening. While The Incredible Hulk won over the domestic box office with a hulky $54.5 million, The Happening took the international box office with $32.1 million; against Hulk's $31 million. Then again, The Happening played in nearly double the theaters.
20th Century Fox can't be disappointed, however, as the latest creation from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan exceeded expectations at the domestic box office, grossing an estimated $30.5 million. The film also saw the second-best June opening for an R-rated film right behind last year's Knocked Up ($30.7 million).
With the strong support for The Incredible Hulk, the film quickly earned the title of best opening gross for Father's Day weekend. While this 'reboot' didn't open as strong as Ang Lee's Hulk did back in 2003, both Universal and Marvel are pleased with the outcome.
Thanks to the strong opening bows for both The Incredible Hulk and The Happening, the overall box office was up an impressive 24% from the same frame last year.
But let's not hand all the credit to these two openers, as DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda continues to impress by declining a slim 41% to earn another $34.3 million at the box office. The CG-toon crossed the $100 million mark in its second weekend bringing its total box office cume to $118 million.
Marvel's other hit, Iron Man, missed jumping the $300 million mark this weekend by inches ($297.4 million).
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