Box Office
You Don’t Mess with Kung Fu Panda at the Box Office
Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on June 8, 2008
Well, it was a good weekend for the top two movies at the box office this weekend. Kung Fu Panda won the box office this week with a take of $60 million dollars! Meanwhile, the Adam Sandler flick You Don’t Mess With the Zohan took in $40 million. So it was a good weekend all the way around at the box office, with two movies at the top making boatloads of money. These theater owners should be pleased, because they’ve had a rough ride lately (with Speed Racer flopping, etcetera.)
In third place was Indiana Jones 4 at 22.8 million, and dropping all the way down to fourth was Sex and the City, which took a massive 62.5 per cent drop down to $21.3 million. Seems to me that all the stories out there about how this was the “most anticipated” movie of the summer were dead-on. So many people were anticipating this movie that they all went to last Friday’s screenings! Since then, Sex and the City has dropped like a rock. I wish I could say I was surprised, but I’m not.
Nor am I surprised at the top two movies — though I gather folks at the studios were surprised. But I’d been saying for weeks that I thought Kung Fu Panda would be big, and it is. The moment I found out this flick was playing in 4,100 theaters I knew these predictions of high-40s would be off by a mile. This is officially the top animated opening weekend of the year so far, topping Horton Hears a Who! We’ll see what happens when Wall-E comes out in a few weeks.
The damages:
| 1. Kung Fu Panda | $60 million |
| 2. You Don’t Mess With the Zohan | $40 million |
| 3. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | $22 million |
| 4. Sex and the City | $21 million |
| 5. The Strangers | $9.2 million |
| 6. Iron Man | $7.5 million |
| 7. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian | $5.5 million |
| 8. What Happens in Vegas | $3.4 million |
| 9. Baby Mama | $779,000 |
| 10. Made of Honor |
$775,000 |
Overall, Iron Man is up to $288 million and Indiana Jones 4 is catching up fast at $253 million.
That’s it for this weekend! See you next weekend for what promises to be a really big weekend, with both The Happening and The Incredible Hulk rolling out.
Read more articles by John Cairns
One Comment
June 9th, 2008 at 2:08 am
This weekend just shows how adults can’t predict what kids movie is going to be a hit. Wall-E will crush Panda under his treads. When I watched Prince Caspian, Wall-E was one of the trailers. And all the little kids were chanting Wall-E like they all took too many behavioral meds at one time.
As for Sex In the City dropping so much is related to Kung Fu Panda. Mommy time’s over time to go to what the kids want to watch. But I don’t think It’s going to disappear from the top ten altogether soon.