By Katey Rich
While Get Smart wasn't exactly as intellectual as the title might suggest, it was definitely the smart option for people interested in comedy over the weekend. The Steve Carell vehicle made a healthy $39 million, easily trouncing fellow freshman comedy The Love Guru, which managed only fourth place with its $14 million gross. In the battle between Carell, who plays a man with an inflated ego on television now, and Mike Myers, who played several men with inflated egos on "Saturday Night Live" in the 90s, it was the present that beat out the past.
Coming in behind Get Smart was the stalwart family comedy Kung Fu Panda, which narrowly edged out the newer The Incredible Hulk to snag second place and $21.7 million. Hulk dropped a sharp 61% in its second weekend to bring in $21.5 million, but it fared far better than its fellow second-week release. M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, which debuted strongly last week despite terrible reviews, fell 67% to come in at #5, behind Love Guru with just $10 million. In a summer movie season boasting so much quality competition, it'll be hard for The Happening to hang on much longer.
In another switcheroo, Indiana Jones came in ahead of the newer comedy You Don't Mess With the Zohan. Indy and crew made $8.4 million at #6, while Adam Sandler's movie likely suffered thanks to new comedy competition, and brought in $7.2 million at #7. Zohan would be the most successful comedy of the summer so far if not for juggernaut Sex and the City, which is really more of a drama anyway. The female-centric movie made $6.4 million over the weekend, good enough for eighth place.
Rounding things out were Iron Man, finally petering out with $4 million, and The Strangers, ending its surprisingly long run in the top 10 with $1.9 million. Both will probably be absent next week, as two strong contenders head to multiplexes this weekend. But we'll get to those later.
In the full top 17 (no top 20 once again over at Box Office Mojo), the real story is Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, which opened in limited release as part of a serious marketing campaign that I wrote about two weeks ago. It scored a humongous $44,600 per-theatre average, playing only in cities that featured American Girl stores, many of which featured special promotions and events surrounding the movie. Kit goes into wide release on July 4 weekend, and may run into trouble with larger audiences as it goes up against Wall-E (damn! I said I would talk about that later.) But regardless, Kit has proven for the second time this summer, in however small a way, that females really do go to the movies.
Check out the full top 17 after the jump.
| TW | LW | Title (click to view) | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Theater Count / Change | Average | Total Gross | Budget* | Week # | |
| 1 | N | Get Smart | WB | $39,155,000 | - | 3,911 | - | $10,011 | $39,155,000 | $80 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | Kung Fu Panda | P/DW | $21,700,000 | -35.4% | 4,053 | -83 | $5,354 | $155,596,000 | $130 | 3 |
| 3 | 1 | The Incredible Hulk | Uni. | $21,557,000 | -61.1% | 3,508 | +3 | $6,145 | $96,476,000 | $150 | 2 |
| 4 | N | The Love Guru | Par. | $14,000,000 | - | 3,012 | - | $4,648 | $14,000,000 | $62 | 1 |
| 5 | 3 | The Happening | Fox | $10,000,000 | -67.2% | 2,986 | - | $3,348 | $50,267,000 | $60 | 2 |
| 6 | 5 | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | Par. | $8,414,000 | -42.9% | 3,171 | -633 | $2,653 | $290,835,000 | $185 | 5 |
| 7 | 4 | You Don't Mess with the Zohan | Sony | $7,200,000 | -56.0% | 3,278 | -188 | $2,196 | $84,055,000 | $90 | 3 |
| 8 | 6 | Sex and the City | NL | $6,465,000 | -34.0% | 2,442 | -713 | $2,647 | $132,385,000 | $65 | 4 |
| 9 | 7 | Iron Man | Par. | $4,002,000 | -28.8% | 1,912 | -491 | $2,093 | $304,788,000 | $140 | 8 |
| 10 | 8 | The Strangers | Rog. | $1,949,000 | -51.6% | 1,578 | -832 | $1,235 | $49,586,000 | $9 | 4 |
| 11 | 9 | The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian | BV | $1,708,000 | -46.0% | 1,462 | -846 | $1,168 | $135,467,000 | $200 | 6 |
| 12 | 10 | What Happens in Vegas | Fox | $770,000 | -53.8% | 708 | -714 | $1,087 | $77,522,000 | $35 | 7 |
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| 13 | 24 | Mongol | PicH | $744,000 | +563.0% | 94 | +89 | $7,914 | $1,115,000 | $18 | 3 |
| 14 | 12 | The Visitor | Over. | $381,000 | -9.5% | 224 | -30 | $1,700 | $7,190,000 | - | 11 |
| 15 | 11 | Baby Mama | Uni. | $243,000 | -45.0% | 302 | -151 | $804 | $59,287,000 | $30 | 9 |
| 16 | N | Kit Kittredge: An American Girl | PicH | $223,000 | - | 5 | - | $44,600 | $223,000 | - | 1 |
| 17 | 14 | Forgetting Sarah Marshall | Uni. | $191,000 | -33.6% | 253 | -53 | $754 | $62,472,000 | $30 | 10 |
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