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'Hulk' Turns Box Office Green with $63 Mln Bow
Sunday June 22 1:05 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - That's fairly Incredible.
"The Hulk" became the latest comic book hero to open at No. 1 at the North American box office, selling about $62.6 million worth of tickets in its first three days of release, its distributor, Universal Pictures, said on Sunday.
However, the opening for the jolly green giant falls far behind that of Marvel Comics stablemate "Spider-Man," which set a three-day opening record of $114.8 million last year. It also trails the most recent Marvel entry, "X2: X-Men United," which opened with $85.6 million last month. Among all films to open so far this year, "The Hulk" ranks at No. 5.
The film, reportedly budgeted at more than $150 million, was directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee, who scored an international hit with his last project, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
It stars Australian actor Eric Bana as Bruce Banner, the mild-mannered scientist who mutates into a raging green beast when he's ticked off. Jennifer Connelly, Nick Nolte and Sam Elliott co-star.
Universal Pictures, a unit of Vivendi Universal SA, partnered on the project with Marvel Studios, a unit of Marvel Enterprises Inc .
Critics were hardly enthusiastic about "The Hulk," delivering such verdicts as "humorless" comedy "Bruce Almighty" was No. 4 with $10.0 million. Their respective totals rose to $102.1 million and $210.7 million.
The crime caper "The Italian Job" was No. 5 with $7.3 million in its fourth weekend, taking its haul to $67.7 million. The film was released by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc .