Movies fend off soccer "Happening"

By Hy Hollinger

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Movies proved over the weekend that they can hold up to overseas soccer hysteria as two summer blockbusters topped $30 million, two went over $20 million and two exceeded $10 million.

In the face of the June 7 start of the quadrennial European soccer championship that attracts worldwide TV viewers, two new tentpole releases -- Fox's "The Happening" and Universal/Marvel Comics' "The Incredible Hulk" -- kicked off to $31.8 million and $31 million, respectively. At the same time, a surprise counterprogrammer -- New Line's "Sex and the City" -- lured another $23.3 million. Steven Spielberg's Indy sequel "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" added $20.7 million to its $300 million-plus international receipts.

Paramount/DreamWorks' animated "Kung Fu Panda," just getting started, came up with $12 million, and Disney/Pixar's staggered release of family entry "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" delivered $11.2 million.

Soccer fans apparently watched the televised soccer matches only on days when the home country played, because there were surprising turnouts for M. Night Shyamalan's paranoid thriller and for "Hulk's" comic book-based superhero.

Overcoming mostly negative reviews, "Happening" gained its narrow victory by dint of a massive release on 5,693 screens in 61 markets, while "Hulk" had 3,417 playdates in 38 territories. "Happening" opened at No. 1 in five markets, and "Hulk" opened at No. 1 in 17 countries.

"Sex" held its own through the soccer madness, reaching a total of $136 million after its weekend take of $23.3 million from 5,597 screens in 41 markets.

"Crystal Skull," set to open in Japan this weekend, hit a cumulative total of $358 million after adding $20.7 million from 6,506 screens in 49 territories.

"Kung Fu Panda" -- with new openings in such markets as Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, the Middle East, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates -- hit $39.3 million after its $12 million take from 1,607 screens in 15 countries.

With the summer tentpoles of "Crystal Skull," "Panda" and "Iron Man" -- which reached $209.2 million after a near-end-of-run $1.1 million weekend -- leading the charge, Paramount Pictures International topped $1 billion in international boxoffice receipts in less than six months of the second year of its stand-alone operation.

In Japan, "Prince Caspian" held the No. 2 spot, tallying $23 million in four weeks, while Mexico contributed $18 million in five weeks. The family-faith offering held at No. 1 in China in its second weekend.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter