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"The Incredible Hulk" was a box-office bruiser, yanking in $54.5 million over opening weekend and laying to rest the stigma of his unappreciated big-screen adventure five years ago.
"The Hulk got a second chance, got angry and came back with a vengeance," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "This was a big question mark going in. The film had a history or a checkered past."
Marvel Studios, which financed "The Incredible Hulk," and distributor Universal hope the new movie, starring Edward Norton as the scientist who turns into the Hulk when maddened, will have a longer shelf life and eventually top out with better numbers than its predecessor.
DreamWorks Animation and Paramount's "Kung Fu Panda," the previous weekend's No. 1 movie, slipped to second place with $34.3 million, raising its total to $118 million.
Also rebounding off a bad last movie was director M. Night Shyamalan, whose fright flick "The Happening" with Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel opened at a sturdy No. 3 with $30.5 million.
Shyamalan, whose blockbusters include "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs," flopped two years ago with "Lady in the Water."

"Night rocked," said Chris Aronson, distribution executive for 20th Century Fox, which released "The Happening," a tale of an airborne toxin that prompts people to kill themselves in ghastly ways. "Any time you're coming off an effort like `Lady in the Water' that was perceived as a disappointment, movie-goers and critics tend to be a little gun-shy, but the numbers speak for themselves."

Fans and critics definitely were gun-shy on "The Incredible Hulk," some expecting the movie to bomb because of the bad taste "Hulk" left in audiences' mouths.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "The Incredible Hulk," $54.5 million.

2. "Kung Fu Panda," $34.3 million.

3. "The Happening," $30.5 million.

4. "You Don't Mess With the Zohan," $16.4 million.

5. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," $13.5 million.

6. "Sex and the City," $10.2 million.

7. "Iron Man," $5.1 million.

8. "The Strangers," $4.1 million.

9. "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," $3 million.

10. "What Happens in Vegas," $1.7 million.