The Box-Office Top Five
#1 "Kung Fu Panda" ($60 million)
#2 "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" ($40 million)
#3 "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" ($22.8 million)
#4 "Sex and the City" ($21.3 million)
#5 "The Strangers" ($9.3 million)
We've already had the weekends of "Indy" and "Iron Man," and declared this the summer of "Sex." Now, it appears that when it comes to family-friendly fare, 2008 might just be the year of the panda.
Jack Black's "Kung Fu Panda" took home the box-office crown over the weekend, earning nearly $20 million more than its studio had projected. The animated comedy from the makers of the "Shrek" series tells the story of an overweight bear who studies with the Furious Five — Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey — to become an unlikely Bruce Lee. The CGI-fueled fantasy, which co-stars the voices of Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan and Seth Rogen, took in some $60 million.
"Panda" was trailed more closely than expected by a summer hit only Jack Black was brave enough to mess with. Adam Sandler's hair-trimming, hair-raising comedy "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" opened in second place with $40 million, tying with "Click" for the funnyman's fourth-best opening in his career. A Sandler flick as unusually action-minded as it is political, "Zohan" tells the tale of an Israeli anti-terrorism commando who moves to New York and becomes a hairstylist. The flick co-stars several of the comedian's longtime friends and associates, including John Turturro, Nick Swardson and Rob "You Can Do Eeet!" Schneider.
"Indiana Jones and the Quest for Third Place" sums up Harrison Ford's weekend quite nicely, as his long-awaited blockbuster hung tough with $22.8 million. After three weekends, "Crystal Skull" is now at $253 million total.
They've spent a decade asking where all the good men are, and now the studio behind "Sex and the City" might want to ask Carrie Bradshaw and her friends where all the women went. One weekend after their movie set Hollywood on fire, "Sex" tumbled a massive 63 percent, taking in $21.3 million. Sarah Jessica Parker seems to have lost her core crowd to "Zohan," whose audience was 51 percent female — still, the movie will cross the $100 million mark by the beginning of this week.
"The Strangers" closed out the top five, as the only horror alternative currently at your local megaplex took in $9.3 million. Rounding out the big 10 films of the weekend were such former blockbusters as "Iron Man," "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," "What Happens in Vegas," "Baby Mama" and "Made of Honor."
Quietly, the once-promising "Speed Racer" fell from the pack with a mere $370,000 in its fifth weekend; the $120 million dud has grossed only $42 million. But cheer up, Speed: Although you'll never see a sequel, you're still better off than Heather Graham's "Miss Conception," which averaged a mere $500 on each of its three screens.
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