The most expensive comedy ever made, “Evan Almighty” debuted rather modest this week end with 32.1 million dollars in the cash register, results showed Sunday.

Evan Almighty, with Morgan Freeman once again playing God, seems to be just another funny movie with a huge budget. ‘Cause Universal Studio’s budget for “Evan Almighty” was of about $175!

“Evan Almighty” is in fact a sequel to 2003’s “Bruce Almighty”, a movie starring Jim Carrey and Morgan Freeman. Directed by Tom Shadyac, who is now directing “Evan” too, “Bruce Almighty” told the story of a man striking a bargain with God. The movie opened to $68 million when premiered in 2003.

“Evan Almighty” is written by Steve Oederkerk, who was the co-writer of the first movie. Steve Carell, who had a supporting role in “Bruce Almighty”, will now play the main character. He is a newscaster who leaves the provinces for big-time exposure in Washington DC, only to be told by God to build an arc and collect animals in preparation for a flood.

The horror movie 1408, starring John Cusack as a horror writer and Samuel L Jackson, took second place with 20.175 million dollars, the most successful debut of a movie based on the master of terror author Stephen King.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer lost the first place, taking in 20.15 million dollars for a total of 97 million dollars since the premiere.
They were followed by Ocean's Thirteen, with 11.3 million; Knocked Up, with 10.6 million dollars; Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, 7.2 million dollars; Surf's Up, 6.7 million dollars; Shrek the Third, 5.8 million dollars; and Nancy Drew, 4.5 million dollars.

In tenth place with 4 million dollars was A Mighty Heart, the story of the 2002 kidnapping and beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, with super star Angelina Jolie playing the role of his wife.