The weekend ended as expected. $60 mill for ‘Kung Fu Panda’ and $40 for ‘You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,’ the studios reported earlier today. Both DreamWorks Animation and Adam Sandler can be pleased. DreamWorks only opened higher with ‘Shrek 2′ and ‘Shrek the Third’ and Sandler had his usual $40 million opening. Nothing to be ashamed of, I’d say.

We noted how ‘Indiana Jones 4′ and ‘Sex and the City’ swapped places yesterday, and they didn’t swap back this Sunday. Indy did $6.7 million on Sunday, while ‘Sex’ grossed another $6 mill. Their totals were respectively $22.8 million and $21.3 million. A close call and I expected a higher second weekend for ‘Sex and the City,’ after it held up so well during the weekdays. Monday and Tuesday will show its definite staying power. I personally expect it to hop to the third place again, maybe even passing ‘Zohan.’

‘The Strangers’ came in last, but not least. Considering the $9 million budget, it had an amazing second weekend. It topped its budget with $9.3 million and now stands at a total of $37.5 million. This must give Liv Tyler a lot of credit at the box office.

Next week is another big one. Will ‘The Incredible Hulk’ smash into the box office? And does ‘The Happening’ even stand a chance?

The Friday box office numbers were even higher than we posted earlier, as you might have seen in our box office graph on the left bar. ‘You Don’t Mess with the Zohan’ ended the day with $15 million. The second highest first day gross for a Adam Sandler movie, just behind ‘The Longest Yard’ in 2005. ‘Kung Fu Panda’ did $20 million, making it DreamWorks’ highest grossing non-sequel.

The Saturday estimates indicate an even better day for Jack Black, Angelina Jolie and Jackie Chan — their voices I mean. ‘Kung Fu Panda’ made about $23.5 million, beating expectations yet again. Considering the usual Sunday drop, we’re looking at a $60 million weekend for the DreamWorks animation. This will translate into the fourth place on the top 10 of non-sequel animations, just behind three Disney features.

The Saturday box office was a little unsteady for ‘Zohan’ though. He had a small drop to about $14.5 million. The total is estimated at $40 million for the weekend, a typical Adam Sandler opening.

Notable is that the third to the fifth place were respectively taken by ‘Indiana Jones 4,’ ‘The Strangers’ and ‘Sex and the City’ with $9.9, $8.8 and $8.1 million. Quite a shift from Friday, when ‘Sex and the City’ was still third. But I fully expect it to return there tomorrow or during next week.

Marvel isn’t shy about updating us on their business plan, as we saw in the past. And this time they’re sharing their brand expansion plan. “We’re not in the business of simply making films; we’re in the business of building brands,” Marvel Entertainment president Paul Gitter said. The comic book company is planning to have an even bigger merchandising campaign for their ‘Iron Man’ DVD release this fall, than the theatrical release last month.

Gitter even wants to “create specific programs for each retailer,” he said. “Our strategy is to place product into the marketplace prior to a film’s releasing and to keep it [there], then to freshen up the product with new styles and new art in time with the DVD release.“

But not only that. Marvel has a three-year strategy for all their currently planned films. 1. Release the movie in theaters and on DVD, with marketing well in advance. 2. Expand with a supporting animated release. 3. Release the sequel to the first movie.

With ‘The Incredible Hulk’ coming up, Marvel seems to be hitting the gold by making their own movies. But can they keep it up? And are they expecting ‘Thor,’ ‘The First Avenger: Captain America,’ ‘The Avengers’ and all their sequels to be a success?