Oh my god, really? Sixty million bucks for Kung Fu Panda? Not that this ain't a delightful, charming, utterly enchanting -- and very funny -- flick. But still! That's one of the biggest June openings ever, and the second best animated opening in June ever (it's just a smidge behind 2006's Cars, and I bet it bypasses that one when the final numbers come in), and the third biggest opening weekend of 2008 so far.

I don't think anybody called this... okay, someone did. But most predictions were lower, some far lower. And those prognosticators were even more wrong when it came to this weekend's No. 2 movie, You Don't Mess With the Zohan, which hauled in $40 million. Forty million! (And boy, am I glad I overcame my initial reservations to skip this one, because I discovered that it's surprisingly not horrible, and now I don't have to complain about how undiscriminating movie audiences are for throwing $40 million at it.)

The biggest upset, though, might be at the No. 3 spot, where Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull held strong by taking in another $22.8 million -- bringing its total gross over $250 million -- and dropping only a single slot in the roster. Sex and the City, on the other hand, plummeted from No. 1 last week to No. 4 this week. The film added another $21.3 million to its coffers, but that was a drop of almost 63 percent from its opening weekend, which indicates the movie will not have legs throughout the summer, or even over the next month. At No. 5, The Strangers also took a big drop, of almost 56 percent, to take in another $9.3 million... but that's about as much as the movie was expected to earn in its opening weekend, last week, so the studio folks are probably happy about that.

The indie side of things is quiet at the moment, as you might expect at this time of year. But a new historical epic from Kazakhstan, Mongol, a bio of legendary warlord Genghis Khan, rather invaded the five theaters it was playing in, earning $26,600 at each of those venues. That leaves the top movies in the dust, even with their impressive takes: the panda earned $14,584 per-screen, and the Zohan $11,554. Looks like it's the Khan you don't mess with.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
MaryAnn Johanson (email me)
reviews, reviews, reviews! at FlickFilosopher.com

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