TUESDAY 10:00 p.m. (Pacific): DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda ticked up 4% from Monday for a $6.56M Tuesday, which is stronger than the $5.74M that Pixar’s Cars scored on its 2nd weekday in 2006. The John Lasseter-directed early June Disney release went on to a $244M domestic haul, so Paramount has every reason to be thrilled. Kung Fu Panda has actually out-grossed Cars by about $850,000 after 5 days in release.
Adam Sandler‘s You Don’t Mess with the Zohan (Sony) scored almost $3.8M on Tuesday for a new cume of $46.53M or so. Sex and the City (Warner Bros) continues to deliver solid weekday business with an estimated $2.77M followed by Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Paramount) with $2.27M. The Strangers (Rogue) placed #5 for the day with just over $1M and a new cume just shy of $50M, a nifty total for an early summer genre pic.
Meanwhile, Marvel’s first self-financed and self-produced movie, Iron Man (Paramount) has soared past $290M with a Tuesday take of about $894,000. If the number holds, Robert Downey Jr. superhero debut will be at $290.63M, making it the 30th-best grossing movie in history as it passes 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back.
