100% towards my projection last week 1) Kung Fu Panda USD60Million 2) Zohan USD40Million. Yuhu!! Against all odds dude!!! I've done it. - Ibrahem.SAir-conditioned multiplexes were the place to be as the new comedies Kung Fu Panda and You Don't Mess With the Zohan generated sparkling debuts attracting a combined $100M in opening weekend ticket sales powering the marketplace to the second biggest June weekend in box office history. Add in popular holdovers and four different movies managed weekend grosses of more than $20M. It was the first time since last July that this has occurred. Overall it was the strongest weekend at the box office in ten months and gave June a sensational start.
Gobbling up the most business and winning the weekend by a wide margin, Kung Fu Panda topped the charts with an estimated $60M in its opening weekend. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount, the PG-rated comedy averaged a scorching $14,584 from 4,114 theaters. It was the third best opening ever for a DreamWorks toon after only Shrek the Third and Shrek 2 which bowed to $121.6M and $108M, respectively. If the estimate holds, Panda will rank as the fourth largest opening in June after Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ($93.7M), The Hulk ($62.1M), and Cars ($60.1M).
Panda is anchored by the comedic stylings of Jack Black and features supporting voice roles by Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, and Jackie Chan. The animated film took advantage of a perfect competitive environment as there was built-up hunger from the family audience since parents have had no exciting films to take their younger children to for two months now. The road ahead also looks bright as Panda will not face any major competition for kids for three weeks when rival Pixar hits the big screen with Wall-E on June 27. Plus with school children about to go on their summer breaks from class, demand was there for a funny and entertaining film.
The debut was the sixth biggest for a non-sequel animated film after The Simpsons Movie ($74M), The Incredibles ($70.5M), Finding Nemo ($70.3M), Monsters, Inc. ($62.6M), and Cars. Reviews were strong and early word-of-mouth has been solid. Plus with more schools closing each coming week, midweek numbers will become sturdy helping to fatten up Panda's belly. It could very well become Paramount's third consecutive release to top the $200M mark following Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. For 2008, Panda also ranks as the third biggest opener of the year after those two studio siblings. A combined domestic haul of $800-900M may result from the trio with the global tally hitting a jaw-dropping $2 billion.
Paramount reported an opening day tally of $20.3M on Friday followed by a modest 11% bump on Saturday to $22.5M, and an estimated 24% decline on Sunday to $17.2M. Kung Fu Panda successfully brought out the non-family audience too which helped it score a potent Friday. Studio exit polls showed that 55% of the crowd was female and 51% was 25 or older.
Coming in second for the weekend was Adam Sandler with his new comedy You Don't Mess With the Zohan which proved that fans will line up to see him in just about anything. The Sony release bowed to an estimated $40M from 3,462 locations for a potent $11,554 average. If the estimate stands, it will be the comedian's fifth opening at or above the $40M mark joining The Longest Yard ($47.6M), Anger Management ($42.2M), Big Daddy ($41.5M), and Click ($40M). It is also his eighth debut above the $35M mark. The PG-13 vehicle finds Sandler playing a decorated Israeli soldier who escapes to New York to become a hairdresser. Reviews were about as negative as those for his other broad comedies.
According to studio research, the audience for Zohan was evenly split with females making up 51% and those over 25 also representing 51%. For Sony it was the studio's biggest opening in more than a year. Not since it smashed the all-time record in May 2007 with Spider-Man 3's $151.1M bow has it reached the $40M level on any film's opening weekend.
Sandler has been the most consistent comedy draw at the box office this decade and his latest venture stands an excellent chance of giving the A-lister his seventh consecutive year of having a $100M+ grosser. Will Smith hopes to extend his streak to seven as well next month with Sony stablemate Hancock opening on July 2. The only other star to match this feat in recent times was Tom Cruise who starred in $100M+ blockbusters each year from 2000-2006. [Source from: boxofficeguru.com]
| # | Title | Jun 6 - 8 | Weeks | Cumulative | Distributor | ||||
| 1 | Kung Fu Panda | $ 60,000,000 | 1 | $ 60,000,000 | Paramount | ||||
| 2 | You Don't Mess With the Zohan | 40,000,000 | 1 | 40,000,000 | Sony | ||||
| 3 | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom... | 22,805,000 | 3 | 253,026,000 | Paramount | ||||
| 4 | Sex and the City | 21,310,000 | 2 | 99,269,000 | New Line | ||||
| 5 | The Strangers | 9,290,000 | 2 | 37,647,000 | Universal | ||||
| 6 | Iron Man | 7,522,000 | 6 | 288,893,000 | Paramount | ||||
| 7 | The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian | 5,527,000 | 4 | 125,846,000 | Buena Vista | ||||
| 8 | What Happens in Vegas | 3,400,000 | 5 | 72,230,000 | Fox | ||||
| 9 | Baby Mama | 780,000 | 7 | 57,904,000 | Universal | ||||
| 10 | Made of Honor | 775,000 | 6 | 44,660,000 | Sony |
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