“The Happening” Crushed By “Incredible Hulk” In Friday Box Office

By Sarah Vasques
20:48, June 14th 2008
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“The Happening” Crushed By “Incredible Hulk” In Friday Box Office

“The Happening”, the latest movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan, has failed to gain the first spot in this Friday box office and it was defeated by the big, green, Incredible Hulk.

According to the figures released by BoxOfficeMojo, “The Happening” which opened on Friday in 2,987 theatres, has gained only $12,800,000, eight million less than “The Incredible Hulk”.

The action of “The Happening” centers around science teacher Elliot (Mark Wahlberg), his wife (Zooey Deschanel) and his best friend (John Leguizamo) who all run away from a deadly toxin. The toxin isn’t deadly in the way that toxins are usually deadly. It doesn’t make you ill, it doesn’t cause you to suffocate. It only gives you a great, irrepressible desire to kill yourself. The fatal toxin is released by our planet, which is sick and tired of man’s abuse of nature, and now wants to kill all of its inhabitants. It exploits the current paranoid mood: terrorists, government conspiracies, global warming changes and whatnot.

The movie had generally negative reviews, but the media analysts predicted that “The Happening” will definitely be a stronger opening than “Lady in the Water”, Shyamalan’s 2006 movie.

“The Incredible Hulk”, which opened also on Friday, has a great day and it will be probably this weekend’s champion. The movie earned $21,030,000 in ticket sales from 3,505 theatres.

The 2008 ‘Hulk’ suffered some re-thinking and returned totally re-branded: new director, new cast, new green. “The Transporter’s” Louis Leterrier took over Ang Lee’s directorial chair, Edward Norton took the responsibility of the protagonist, replacing Eric Bana and Hulk’s love interest, geeky scientist Betty Ross is now played by Liv Tyler, instead of Jennifer Connelly. In order to generate a full amnesia of the 2003’s gig, “The Incredible Hulk” opens with a recap of what happened to scientist Bruce Banner and how Hulk was ‘born’ and any reference to the previous movie is forbidden.

The Dreamworks animation, “Kung Fu Panda” was popular for the moviegoers after its strong opening last weekend and earned $10,000,000 on Friday.

The Dreamworks animation tells the story of panda bear Po (Jack Black), who is disappointed that his aspirations in life are limited by his work in his father’s noodle restaurant, a job that a usual panda bear would certainly prefer to a kung fu career. But hey, our hero is no common panda! His incredible self-confidence makes him neglect the fact that he is fat and clumsy when he decides to become a fierce kung fu warrior.

Adam Sandler’s “You Don’t Mess With The Zohan” gained the fourth spot with $5,425,000. Directed by Dennis Dugan and written by Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel, and Judd Apatow, “You Don’t Mess With The Zohan” is a superfluous comedy in which Sandler plays the part of Zohan, a top Israeli commando who decides to flee his country because he wants to become a hairstylist in, you guessed it, the land of all possibilities, America. After faking his death, Zohan arrives in America and finds a job as a sweeper in a hair salon in Brooklyn. He changes his name to Scrappy Coco and, after proving his skills in the business, he becomes a real star, attracting many clients.

“Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull” gained the fifth spot with $3,650,000 and it was closely followed by Carrie Bradshaw’s return in “Sex And The City”, which earned $3,540,000.

The Top 10 was rounded up by “Iron Man”, “The Strangers”, “The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian” and “What Happens In Vegas”.



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