'Hulk' Finds Box-Office Green and 'Happening' Surprises

Not even Shyamalan haters kept audiences away

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Saturday, June 14th 2008 at 4:19 PM

Even though I didn't like the movie and gave it a spotty review despite praising M. Night Shyamalan all week long it appears his R-rated thriller The Happening may be a bigger story this weekend even though Marvel/Universal's The Incredible Hulk aims to take in an estimate $55 million this weekend.

Steve Mason at Fantasy Moguls is reporting Friday box-office estimates showing that Hulk will make an estimated $21 million this Friday and The Happening took in an estimated $12.8 million.

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 $300 million film for 2008 once the weekend ends. Iron Man is likely to finish around $298 million with Indiana Jones finishing around $275 million, and I am beginning to think Indy doesn't have a chance of making it, but Iron Man obviously will.

Sex and the City will crack the $125 million mark and Kung Fu Panda continues to perform well and will come close to hitting the $120 million mark in only its second weekend.

Below are Mason's complete early Friday estimates, and Laremy will be here on Sunday to give you the full recap and snarky remarks.

1. The Incredible Hulk (Universal) – $21 million
2. The Happening (Fox) – $12.8 million
3. Kung Fu Panda (Dreamworks) – $10.25 million
4. You Don't Mess with the Zohan (Sony) – $6.1 million
5. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Paramount) – $3.65 million
6. Sex and the City (Warner Bros.) – $3.6 million
7. Iron Man (Paramount) – $1.55 million
8. The Strangers (Rogue Releasing) – $1.48 million
9. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Disney) – $1.07 million
10. What Happens in Vegas (20th Century Fox) – $783,455