Black thrashes Sandler
Jack Black’s PG-rated Kung Fu Panda thoroughly thrashed Adam Sandler’s PG-13-rated You Don’t Mess With the Zohan at the box office this weekend, with the family-friendly animated feature pulling in 50 percent more than the live action teens-and-up flick.
Kung Fu Panda exceeded expectations with a $60 million weekend, while Zohan brought in a respectable but lower-than-expectations $40 million, as the pair dominated ticket sales over the weekend. In third place, Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull surged back to third place, overtaking last week’s challenge by chick-flick Sex and the City, which fell to fourth place.
Indiana Jones posted $22.8 million over the weekend, while Sex and the City posted $21.3 million. Behind those four, all other films posted less than $10 million on the weekend. The strongest of those was the surprisingly resilient The Strangers, which took fifth place with $9.2 million. Iron Man held on to sixth place with $7.5 million, Prince Caspian drew $5.5 million for seventh place, and What Happens in Vegas drew $3.4 million; nothing else broke even $1 million on the weekend.
Iron Man remains ahead of Indiana Jones in the early race for the top-grossing movie of Summer 2008.
