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.

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.