1. The Incredible Hulk: $55.4 million
2. Kung Fu Panda: $33.6 million
3. The Happening: $30.5 million
4. You Don't Mess with the Zohan: $16.4 million
5. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: $14.7 million
Both of this week's new releases are comedies, putting them in direct competition with one another, so this should be interesting.
Get SmartWhat's It All About: Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway star in this adaptation of the classic 60's spy comedy. Carell is Maxwell Smart, an eager but inexperienced analyst for an espionage agency called CONTROL. Max is suddenly promoted to field agent when the evil organization KAOS learns the identity of nearly every Control agent in the world, and he is teamed with the lovely agent 99 played by Hathaway.
Why It Might Do Well: There's nostalgia appeal at work here, plus Steve Carell's presence will stir up memories of hits like The 40 Year Old Virgin and he's still got plenty of fans from NBC's The Office.
Why It Might Not Do Well: How well a spy caper created during the Cold War translates to the 21st century remains to be seen. Also, the 58% rating at rottentomatoes.com isn't thrilling me.
Number of Theaters: 3,700
Prediction: $40 million
The Love GuruWhat's It All About: Mike Myers plays Pitka, an American raised by gurus since childhood who returns to the States to seek a career in the self-help industry.
Why It Might Do Well: Like me, I'm betting a lot of people are hoping Meyers has another Austin Powers caliber character here.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Sadly, having seen the trailer I don't think hoping will be enough. The preview has a few laughs, but overall it looks pretty dopey and believe it or not, Rottentomatoes.com is currently giving this a 0% rating.
Number of Theaters: 2,700
Prediction: $22 million
Get Smart's wider release makes it a sure thing for first over The Love Guru, and I suspect Marvel's Jade Giant will have enough momentum to keep Mike Myers' latest out of second. Here's how I suspect it will go:
1. Get Smart
2. The Incredible Hulk
3. The Love Guru
4. Kung Fu Panda
5. The Happening
Participation in the box office prediction competition was way up. Awesome! Welcome aboard to the newbies and thanks to everyone for playing. Here's how we all did.
1. Paul: 16
1. Phil: 16
1. Ray: 16
1. Smiggy: 16
1. Lostinafog: 16
1. Erin: 16
1. airtoast: 16
1. Chris: 16
1. Gregory Rubinstein: 16
1. Logan Mauldin: 16
1. Alex Farquharson: 16
1. cubitfox: 16
2. Matt: 12
2. Awesomepants: 12
2. rjbnzisngr2008: 12
2. dtzamaras: 12
2. DarkAgar: 12
2. AJ Wiley: 12
2. kevjohn: 12
3. I Eat Robots: 11
4. Kevin: 9
4. Brent Todd: 9
4. cough: 9
4. Prateek S.: 9
4. Mario: 9
4. Micklasz Harveson: 9
5. Aaron: 7
So does my prediction hold water? Let's here your take. Post your predictions for the top five movies in the comments section below before 5:00PM Eastern Time on Friday. One point for every top five movie correctly named, two points for every correct placement, and one extra point for the top movie.
1. 1- Get Smart
2- The Love Guru
3- The Incredible Hulk
4- Kung Fu Panda
5- The Happening
Posted at 4:14PM on Jun 18th 2008 by Alex Farquharson