Box Office Results - 6/13 To 6/15
Box office results for weekend June 13 to June 15, along with my comments wherever I felt like giving:
1. The Incredible Hulk - $54.5 Million (saw it on Friday - let's just hope this is the last rendition we'll see, because this was actually worse than Ang Lee's version)
2. Kung Fu Panda - $34.3 Million
3. The Happening - $30 Million (saw it on Saturday - they should have called it The De-Evolution of Shyamalan As Filmmaker; because it's a rather pathetic, laughable attempt. He's lost whatever clout he gained from his earlier flicks, notably The Sixth Sense, which I thought was overrated anyway. It'll be interesting to see how the studios deal with him from here on, since his last 3 or so movies haven't been as successful, commercially and critically, as his backers would prefer. I read that he was paid an 8-figure upfront salary for The Happening, which was a significant percentage of the film's $60 Million budget. I doubt he'll enjoy similar paychecks from here on)
4. You Don't Mess With The Zohan - $16.4 Million
5. Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull - $13.5 Million (saw it 2 weeks ago - an absolute waste of my time and money. Extremely disappointing, especially when one considers the talent involved. Shame on you Mr Spielberg and Mr Lucas! You will NOT be getting my money again, if you decide to make a 5th, as you've said you might)
6. Sex And The City $10.1 Million (it's made $119.9 Million thus far, exceeding most expectations)
7. Iron Man - $5.1 Million (the highest grossing film so far this year at $297.4 Million in total, and the most entertaining of all summer studio films I've seen, and that's not saying very much)
8. The Strangers - $4 Million
9. The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian - $3 Million
10. What Happens In Vegas - $1.7 Million
Films opening this week, none I plan on seeing: Get Smart (Wide), another TV adaptation; The Love Guru (Wide), Mike Myers stars in costume again, this time as a self-help guru; Brick Lane (Limited), A young Bangladeshi woman arrives in 1980s London, leaving behind home family, for an arranged marriage and a new life; Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (Limited), 9-year-old Kit Kittredge, an aspiring newspaper journalist out to solve a mystery during the Great Depression.
1. The Incredible Hulk - $54.5 Million (saw it on Friday - let's just hope this is the last rendition we'll see, because this was actually worse than Ang Lee's version)
2. Kung Fu Panda - $34.3 Million
3. The Happening - $30 Million (saw it on Saturday - they should have called it The De-Evolution of Shyamalan As Filmmaker; because it's a rather pathetic, laughable attempt. He's lost whatever clout he gained from his earlier flicks, notably The Sixth Sense, which I thought was overrated anyway. It'll be interesting to see how the studios deal with him from here on, since his last 3 or so movies haven't been as successful, commercially and critically, as his backers would prefer. I read that he was paid an 8-figure upfront salary for The Happening, which was a significant percentage of the film's $60 Million budget. I doubt he'll enjoy similar paychecks from here on)
4. You Don't Mess With The Zohan - $16.4 Million
5. Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull - $13.5 Million (saw it 2 weeks ago - an absolute waste of my time and money. Extremely disappointing, especially when one considers the talent involved. Shame on you Mr Spielberg and Mr Lucas! You will NOT be getting my money again, if you decide to make a 5th, as you've said you might)
6. Sex And The City $10.1 Million (it's made $119.9 Million thus far, exceeding most expectations)
7. Iron Man - $5.1 Million (the highest grossing film so far this year at $297.4 Million in total, and the most entertaining of all summer studio films I've seen, and that's not saying very much)
8. The Strangers - $4 Million
9. The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian - $3 Million
10. What Happens In Vegas - $1.7 Million
Films opening this week, none I plan on seeing: Get Smart (Wide), another TV adaptation; The Love Guru (Wide), Mike Myers stars in costume again, this time as a self-help guru; Brick Lane (Limited), A young Bangladeshi woman arrives in 1980s London, leaving behind home family, for an arranged marriage and a new life; Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (Limited), 9-year-old Kit Kittredge, an aspiring newspaper journalist out to solve a mystery during the Great Depression.
I read something somewhere (can't remember now) that said the Kit Kittredge movie was Sex and The City for the generation Y set. Ummm, ok.
Thank goodness for Netflix and Pay Per View.
Ang Lee's 2003 version of The Hulk was horrible...and I'm a major comic book movie fan (probably due to the fact I collected them as a kid). I was kinda looking forward to the latest, but thanks to your heads up I'll skip it.
M. Night's last few films have been major poopers, but he had me at hello with Signs & The Sixth Sense. Overrated? Probably. His work had a haunting quality that I found captivating, but now I find he's a bit of a one trick pony. Too bad...
Indiana Jones...Ugh! I was able to predict at least five lines during this film. Boooooring! I agree...What a waste.
AND you couldn't PAY me to "...Mess With the Zohan"...LOL
- P
@ Albertine - I'd never heard of Kit Kittredge until I heard about this film. I'm certainly not the target audience anyway.
@ P - You still might still want to check out Hulk. Ed Norton tried to make something more out of it, but I read that he fought with the studios on which version reached theatres - they wanted something less introspective like Ang Lee's version and much lighter and action packed. That just didn't work for me.
I don't think Hulk is a good character to adapt for the screen because it calls for lots of CG effects, especially in the creation of Hulk himself, which didn't work for me in either version. It's hard to suspend belief/disbelief when you know what you're watching isn't real.