The impressive ‘Iron Man’ opening last month caused Marvel Entertainment’s stock to jump over 10% to settle the Monday after release with a 7.5% gain. But the mediocre ‘The Incredible Hulk’ opening did quite the opposite. Marvel stock began the day with an expected drop of about 5% to quickly regain its loss during the morning. Still, it didn’t manage to end above the previous close of $36.11. Marvel Entertainment ended the day with $35.69, a 1.16% drop.

Now all this can be explained by how bearish Wall Street was on ‘Iron Man.’ Not much can impress after a $100 million opening by the underdog. Analysts expected the stock to jump mildly if ‘The Incredible Hulk’ performed above $60 million, which it obviously didn’t. And you have to keep in mind Marvel’s stock already climbed from $26 in April, to where it is today.

Now I’m not a stock expert by any means, but I’d say now is not the best time to buy Marvel Entertainment stock.

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’

‘The Incredible Hulk’ continues its mild dominance over ‘The Happening.’ Still targeting a $55 million total gross for the weekend, ‘The Incredible Hulk’ made an estimated $18.4 mill this Saturday. With a $150 million budget, Marvel must be disappointed. Not publicly of course, the blockbuster is still beating their low expectations. But their cheaper ‘Iron Man’ made about twice as much during its opening weekend. These numbers definitely won’t up the Marvel Entertainment stock like ‘Iron Man’ did last month.

‘The Happening’ dropped to an estimated box office result of $10.3 mill Saturday, likely affected by the bad reviews. If the viewers are even more put off this Sunday, it won’t end the weekend far above $30 million. Although I expect most of the target audience not to even read the reviews.

‘Kung Fu Panda’ had a strong Saturday and surpassed M. Night Shyamalan’s awful thrillride. It ended the Saturday with an estimated $13.1 million in sold tickets. With the $10 mill yesterday, it will probably come in second for the weekend with about $35 million.

I’m expecting the studio weekend estimates in a couple of hours.