Hulk Rules Box Office, But Does He 'Smash'?

The Incredible Hulk got off to a 'credible Hulk' start at the North America box office Friday, taking in an estimated $21 million dollars, this according to boxofficeguru.com. The figure suggests the film will take in an estimated $53-57M over the full weekend, which would be right about on - if not slightly exceeding - most predictions.

The rub for Incredible Hulk as it is with most comic book-based films will be its second weekend tally. Ang Lee's Hulk debuted to $24.9M on its opening Friday in 2003, but dropped an 'incredible' 70% in its second weekend, on way to an eventual $132.2m domestic gross.

The lower first day and estimated first weekend gross for Incredible Hulk was expected to audience skepticism of the franchise after the first film, and while Incredible Hulk has not been the box office darling that Iron Man was, decent-enough critical reception and word-of-mouth could carry the sequel past the first film at the end of the day .

Despite tough critical response, M. Night Shyamalan's eco-thriller The Happening did better than expected, finishing #2 for Friday with an estimated $13m take, well in excess of Shyamalan's last debut, Lady in the Water, which bowed to just $6.9m in 2006.

Look for updates with more information later this weekend.