Not much has changed since our last update a couple of hours ago. The final box office results are in line with what we expected. It was a soft start for ‘The Incredible Hulk.’ People still had the bad aftertaste from the first Hulk movie and the $150 million blockbuster didn’t manage to top $55 million. Now $54.5 million isn’t a bad start and it beats Marvel’s (low) expectations. But with a $100 million ‘Iron Man’ opening weekend last month, this number shouldn’t satisfy them. Especially since ‘Iron Man’ was cheaper and a lesser-known character. Marvel simply didn’t succeed in explaining why people should see the green faced Bruce Banner another time. Ang Lee’s ‘The Hulk’ grossed $62 million in its opening weekend.

Meanwhile, ‘The Happening’ gives a mixed picture. While some expected the thriller to end up in the low teens, $30.5 million is a decent number. Considering the $60 million budget, Fox might have wanted a little more. But they made a smart choice by releasing the B-movie worldwide from day one. Not including marketing and distribution, the $32 million overseas gross surprisingly makes M. Night Shyamalan’s work profitable from the first weekend. In this aspect, you could say Fox’ marketing for ‘The Happening’ was better than Universal’s for ‘The Incredible Hulk.’ While it still has to launch in about 25% of its markets, ‘The Incredible Hulk’ made just $31 million overseas.

Continue reading Final box office weekend estimates, ‘The Incredible Hulk’ tops with decent performance, ‘Kung Fu Panda’ second before ‘The Happening’

Yesterday we reported the mediocre early ‘The Incredible Hulk’ box office estimates, but it turns out these numbers were slightly on the low side. Louis Leterrier’s new Hulk grossed over $21 million yesterday, giving it a shot at a $55 million box office weekend. We know it’s no ‘Iron Man’ by now, but it will be a decent opening nonetheless. In line with the opening numbers by ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ last month. Notable is that ‘The Incredible Hulk’ won’t beat ‘The Hulk’ by Ang Lee in 2003, which made $62 million during its opening weekend.

Happening’s box office Friday was in line with what we reported yesterday. The awful thriller made $12.8 million, a little higher than the $12.5 mill we reported. It will definitely top Shyamalan’s last endeavor ‘Lady in the Water,’ which only made $18 million during its opening in 2006. ‘The Happening’ is still looking to surpass $30 million for the total weekend.

Last week’s movies are performing in line with our expectations from the weekly box office roundup. ‘Kung Fu Panda’ had another good Friday with a $10 million gross. While ‘You Don’t Mess with the Zohan’ went down to just $5.5 mill for the day.

The first Friday box office numbers are coming in and it seems like my ‘The Happening’ rant came just in time. A lot of people didn’t know the movie was God-awful and bought an estimated $12.5 million in tickets. This translates into a +$30 million weekend, slightly beating early tracking.

‘The Incredible Hulk’ is having a surprisingly mild opening. I can’t tell you how that one is, since I’m seeing it tonight. But as we questioned in our tracking post earlier this week, it doesn’t seem like people have forgotten about Ang Lee’s ‘The Hulk’ in 2003. The blockbuster had a weak $18.5 mill opening this Friday and will probably gross around $50 million this weekend. Half of Iron Man’s opening by Paramount last month — ‘The Incredible Hulk’ is being distributed by Universal.

I’ll post a small update with the final numbers if they deviate from these box office estimates.

Marvel has tried everything they can to distinguish ‘The Incredible Hulk’ from Ang Lee’s movie in 2003. But can the couple of million visitors be convinced to see another Hulk movie that, well, isn’t plain awful? Tracking numbers indicate so. The grittier look, the new cast and of course the positive ‘Iron Man’ buzz have given the public some merit to see the new movie.

Continue reading Good early ‘The Incredible Hulk’ tracking numbers

A couple of ‘The Incredible Hulk’ spots, with a small Tony Stark appearance. The first full-fletched look at United Artist’s ‘Valkyrie.’ And the ‘Pink Panther 2′ teaser.

• The Incredible Hulk (2 TV spots)
• The Incredible Hulk (Tony Stark spot)
• Valkyrie
• Pink Panther 2 (teaser)

Continue reading Today’s trailers: 3x’The Incredible Hulk,’ ‘Valkyrie’ and ‘Pink Panther 2′

We know Marvel is trying all it can to disconnect ‘The Incredible Hulk’ from the Ang Lee’s movie in 2003 – or should I say flop? But not only the marketing department is busy with distinguishing the new movie from ‘The Hulk,’ the creators are also pressuring the fact their movie is a totally fresh and original experience. Latino Review caught up with the director and producers of the new movie.

Director Louis Leterrier said, “I respect Ang’s movie tremendously and I love Ang’s movie. I just didn’t want to do the same thing. […] we have to all try together to make people understand that this is really not the sequel to the first movie, but it’s not a reboot of the first movie where you do the same thing.”

Continue reading ‘The Incredible Hulk’ is not ‘The Hulk’

More ‘The Incredible Hulk’ pics have made it onto the web. I wonder if the $125 million superhero can make the impact ‘Iron Man’ had. We know how they tried to shake off the ‘Hulk’ failure image of 2003, but I’m not sure everybody has forgotten. Not to mention the amount of competition, when it launches June 13.

After ‘The Wedding Banquet’ in 1993 and ‘Brokeback Mountain’ in 2005, Ang Lee is becoming an expert in the gay genre. And he’s always having some success at the box office with it.

Together with Focus Features, he is now making a comedy called ‘Taking Woodstock’ (A True Story of a Riot, Concert, and a Life). “It explores an inspiring historical moment when liberation and freedom were in the air,” said James Schamus, CEO of Focus Features.

Hmm, “a Riot, Concert, and a Life.” Sounds like this movie has a long way to come.

“People should be free to say anything,” Ang Lee said when asked about Bill C-10. The Canadian amendment makes it possible to deny tax credits to a film considered ‘offensive’ or ‘contrary to public policy.’

The Oscar-winning director even went as far as saying not even the communistic Chinese government censored him during the making of his sex filled ‘Lust, Caution.’ Nor did anyone during the making of his controversial ‘Brokeback Mountain.’

The bill turns financially-assisted films into propaganda and “[the government] should know better than that,” Lee said. Of course the Canadian industry welcomed his comments. “He’s dead on,” said Toronto-based author Susan Swan. “Ang Lee has done us a great favor.”

It’s good to see some big names speak out on this. The bill was initially buried in a pile of harmless material, so some extra attention is always good.