In the days leading up to the release of the new Incredible Hulk film, some people started speculating that it was possible for the new Hulk to break the $100 million opening weekend mark and perhaps beat Iron Man’s opening. This speculation alone was a victory for Universal and Marvel since just a few months ago most people seemed to believe that The Incredible Hulk wouldn’t even pass the $100 million mark in TOTAL let alone the opening weekend.
Still, as much as I’ve been saying for months that this Hulk movie would surprise a lot of people (and clearly it has), I never bought into the new hype that thought it could break $100 million opening weekend. Last Wednesday on the Live Uncut show a listener asked for a prediction, and I said in the $70’s somewhere… and I was still over.
Turns out The Incredible Hulk took the #1 spot at the Box Office by a mile coming in at $54 million. Not bad… but not as good as I thought it would do… still, not bad all things considered.
Little piece of perspective here though. The much maligned Ang Lee’s Hulk movie back in 2003 (which I’m in the vast minority for liking), made $62 million opening weekend. That’s right… This new Hulk film made $8 million LESS than the old one.
Keep in mind though that this Hulk film had a couple of VERY large hurdles to get over that the original Hulk film in 2003 didn’t. Namely… the hatred towards the 2003 film. This film had to battle pre-existing pessimism due to the last Hulk incarnation and some lingering confusion with people who thought this was a sequel to the last one. Both of which are none of this movie’s fault, but it had to deal with it anyway.
So at the end of the day, should Marvel be happy with $54 million opening weekend? I’d say yes all things considered. Also, unlike the last Hulk film this movie is getting some very good word of mouth which will only help it in the coming weeks.
