Once again critics and trackers were proved wrong this year, as the comedy "Get Smart," starring Steve Carell did far better than expected on its opening weekend, and finished in first place with a $39.2 million take.
The film was distributed to a wide 3,911 venues, and averaged a decent $10,013 each.
Considering how long ago Get Smart was popular on television, this has to be considered a good showing by the film. A large number of people felt its age could possibly hinder the financial prospects of the project. The tracking industry continues to get egg on its face this year, as over and over their projections have been proven wrong; this film was no exception.
Second place went to Kung Fu Panda, which held better in its third frame than it did in the previous weekend, dropping only 35 percent to earn $21.7 million. It's now taken in $155.6 million on a $130 million budget.
While finishing third for the weekend, unsurprisingly to me, The Incredible Hulk plunged to $21.2 million its second time around, as it's difficult for people to connect with this odd Marvel (NYSE: MVL) character. Other than changing from his human persona and going around smashing things, there isn't much more to the story. The drop in sales was a hefty 61 percent, making it similar to the 70 percent drop the first Hulk experienced.
With the huge number of engaging characters Marvel could draw from, it baffles me why they continue to attempt to foist this story on us. People have already decided they don't get into him. Marvel just needs to drop this as an attempted franchise and draw from its deep well of interesting superheroes.
The film has brought in $96.5 million so far, and could end with $150 million domestically.
It looks like those who were offended by The Love Guru got their way, as the effort to get people to stay away from the film has obviously worked, as it was only able to garner $14 million in its opener, in spite of the controversy which can sometimes bring out the curious to see what it's all about.
The $60 million used to make this film will be difficult to recoup. Who's going to get this on DVD?
So far this year, it is keeping up with last years record breaking sales, earning $4.4 billion so far. But just like last year, the revenue generated is because of the increasing price of movie tickets, not a growing number of people going to the theaters.
Overall ticket sales are down this year by 2.3 percent.
Top ten for the weekend:
| 1 | Get Smart | $39,155,000 |
| 2 | Kung Fu Panda | $21,700,000 |
| 3 | The Incredible Hulk | $21,557,000 |
| 4 | The Love Guru | $14,000,000 |
| 5 | The Happening | $10,000,000 |
| 6 | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | $8,414,000 |
| 7 | You Don't Mess with the Zohan | $7,200,000 |
| 8 | Sex and the City | $6,465,000 |
| 9 | Iron Man | $4,002,000 |
| 10 | The Strangers | $1,949,000 |
Other Box Office Sites:
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