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Incredible Hulk a real bruiser
15/06/2008 21:04 - (SA)
David Germain
Los Angeles - The Incredible Hulk was a box-office bruiser, yanking in $54.5m at its opening weekend and laying to rest the stigma of his unappreciated big-screen adventure five years ago.
"The Hulk got a second chance, got angry and came back with a vengeance," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "This was a big question mark going in. The film had a history or a checkered past."
Ang Lee's Hulk opened in 2003 with a whopping $62.1m weekend then rolled over and died in subsequent weeks amid terrible word of mouth. The movie crawled to $132.2m, seemingly a respectable total, but actually meagre considering its huge first weekend.
Marvel Studios, which financed The Incredible Hulk, and distributor Universal hope the new movie, starring Edward Norton as the scientist who turns into the Hulk when maddened, will have a longer shelf life and ultimately top out with better numbers than its predecessor.
Also rebounding off a bad last movie was director M Night Shyamalan, whose fright flick, The Happening with Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel opened at a sturdy No 3 with $30.5m.
Shyamalan, whose blockbusters include The Sixth Sense and Signs, flopped two years ago with Lady in the Water.
"Night rocked," said Chris Aronson, distribution executive for 20th Century Fox, which released The Happening, a tale of an airborne toxin that prompts people to kill themselves in ghastly ways.
"Any time you're coming off an effort like Lady in the Water that was perceived as a disappointment, moviegoers and critics tend to be a little gun-shy, but the numbers speak for themselves."
Huge accomplishment
Fans and critics definitely were gun-shy on The Incredible Hulk, some expecting the movie to bomb because of the bad taste Hulk left in audiences' mouths.
"With all the nay-sayers, this is a huge accomplishment," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal. "For months, they thought this was going to be a bomb."
The new movie is not a sequel to 2003's Hulk but, in Marvel's terms, a reboot of the franchise based on the comic book character.
Norton takes over from Eric Bana, who starred in Hulk, a movie fans found too dark and brooding.
This take is more action-oriented, casting Norton's Bruce Banner as a fugitive in the vein of The Incredible Hulk TV series starring Bill Bixby in the 1970s and '80s.
Despite solid reviews and fan buzz, The Incredible Hulk did nearly $8m less at opening weekend than Hulk.That gap widens even more, factoring in today's higher ticket prices.
But, the new flick still put up some of the best numbers yet for a movie opening in June. From the studio's exit polls, audiences are recommending the movie to friends, giving it a good shot to surpass the total gross of Hulk, said Rocco.
Panda slips to No 2
The movie also pulled in $31m in 38 other countries, putting its worldwide total at $85.5m.
Iron Man had an opening weekend nearly twice that of Incredible Hulk and should cross the $300m mark domestically in the next week.
DreamWorks Animation and Paramount's Kung Fu Panda, the previous weekend's No 1 movie, slipped to second place with $34.3m, raising its total to $118m.
- SAPA
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South Africa
