Steve Mason at Fantasy Moguls is reporting
Tracking had The Happening performing extremely poorly and bad reviews and what appears to be critical hatred for M. Night Shyamalan weren't going to help. However, it appears tracking and critics don't determine what interests the public as Night's film may end up raking in $31.2 million this weekend, considerably more than most believed it would bring in. Mason himself declared in a headline on Thursday, "Happening Doomed to $18M-$23M!" Good to see the audiences are willing to give a film a chance even if most critics didn't.
It actually appeared even Fox wasn't giving the film a chance as I have been informed of at least two midnight screenings of The Happening were canceled (one in L.A. and another in Florida). Not sure if the theaters were closing them to provide more screenings of Hulk, but word out of Florida was that it was Fox's call. Doesn't make sense to me.
In other news it still looks like we won't have a
Below are Mason's complete early Friday estimates, and Laremy will be here on Sunday to give you the full recap and snarky remarks.
- The Incredible Hulk (Universal) - $21 million
- The Happening (Fox) - $12.8 million
- Kung Fu Panda (Dreamworks) - $10.25 million
- You Don't Mess with the Zohan (Sony) - $6.1 million
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Paramount) - $3.65 million
- Sex and the City (Warner Bros.) - $3.6 million
- Iron Man (Paramount) - $1.55 million
- The Strangers (Rogue Releasing) - $1.48 million
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Disney) - $1.07 million
- What Happens in Vegas (20th Century Fox) - $783,455




