Box Office Report June 9th 2008

Dude here again. I hope you had a good weekend. I had a good day at the office on Friday. One of my supervisors said if I delivered an item to one of the executives dressed as a ninja, he would buy me lunch. and with that one swift decision, I became the office prank monkey. The sad part? Nobody at my job really seemed to question that I was walking around the office dressed as a ninja.

This weekend, speaking of ninjas (like that segue?) the Kung fu Panda proved that messing with the Zohan pays off in big ways. Ways that the Speed Racer wishes it knew. Let's go to the numbers, shall we? (All in millions, remember, and these are the studio estimates. The actuals will be available on Monday).

1. Kung Fu Panda (Par/DW) - $60.0, 4114 screens, week 1, $60.0 total

2. You Don't Mess With The Zohan (Sony) - $40.0, 3462 screens, week 1, $40.0 total

3. Indiana Jones... (Par) - $22.8, 4190 screens, week 3, $253.0 total

4. Sex and the City (NL)- $21.3, 3325 screens, week 2, $99.2 total

5. The Strangers (Rogue) - $9.2, 2477 screens, week 2, $37.6 total

6. Iron Man (Par) - $7.5, 2931 screens, week 6, $288.8 total

7. Prince Caspian (BV) - $5.5, 3065 screens, week 4, $125.8 total

8. What Happens In Vegas (Fox)- $3.4, 2366 screens, week 5, $72.2 total

9. Baby Mama (Uni) - $.0779, 922 screens, week 7, $57.9 total

10. Made of Honor (Sony) - $0.775, 740 screens, week 6, $44.6 total

So those are the numbers, but what do they mean? Well, it means people really felt the need to see a Panda voiced by Jack Black perform some kung fu. In animated form. $60 million is an impressive debut, and I believe in our "every weekend is a record breaker" times, this is the "Highest Grossing Dreamworks Non-Shrek-Sequel Debut Of All Time!" Let that sink in your hat rack for a moment.

Adam Sandler had an impressive debut in his Zohan movie. That's all I really have to say about that. Sex and the City dropped steeply, but will most likely take in more than these estimates proclaim, and will overtake Indiana Jones. There's something emasculating about that. But not really.

Opening up in limited release, Mongol, a film about Ghengis Khan that was a nominee for Best Foreign Film (to find out what country, do it yourself, I'm too lazy for research) opened up on 5 screens and took in $133,000. Impressive, as it also had the highest per screen average. Higher even than the Zohan or the Panda.

And in the "Because It's There" series: The Forbidden Kingdom took in $88,000 on 160 screens, bringing its grand total to $51,925,000 in 8 weeks.

There you have my (strangely martial arts related) break down. Next week, Hulk: the Apology! And as an extra added bonus, The Happening happens.

Until next weekend....