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.

Some quick Friday estimates before I’m off. ‘You Don’t Mess with the Zohan’ is selling tickets in line with our tracking numbers earlier this week and ‘Kung Fu Panda’ is doing even better.

‘Kung Fu Panda’ is starting off with a good $17.75 million. If it holds up, this could translate into a $55 million weekend, beating other DreamWorks features like ‘Shark Tale,’ ‘Madagascar’ and ‘Shrek.’ But putting it well behind ‘Shrek 2′ and ‘Shrek the Third,’ which both passed $100 million in their opening weekends.

‘You Don’t Mess with the Zohan’ is doing less spectacular. A decent opening for Adam Sandler, with an estimated box office of $13.25 million this Friday. If ‘Zohan’ does about the same Saturday and Sunday, it will open well above $35 million.

Taking a look at the overseas box office, we see ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ doing well in its current territories. But Caspian’s rollout is spanning over two months, which seems old-fashioned for such a big movie.

Paramount released ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Indiana Jones 4′ simultaneous, why can’t Disney do the same? Well, while you can question why it didn’t release in Europe in May, Disney isn’t releasing ‘Prince Caspian’ there in June for a simple reason; the European Soccer Championship. A family movie wouldn’t stand a chance against the big event in Europe and that’s why Disney delayed it until July.

In the couple of territories it’s in, Caspian already took $80 million. But the fantasy will release in most Asian territories this week, with countries like the U.K., France and Germany following in July. A little earlier in the U.K. and France, because Disney probably doesn’t expect them to make the Soccer Championship’s finals — just kidding guys (if you come from one of these countries).

Continue reading Why ‘Prince Caspian’ still didn’t visit Europe, a look at the overseas box office