New 'Hulk' sees $54.5M opening weekend

LOS ANGELES — "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."

Ang Lee's "Hulk" opened in 2003 with a whopping $62.1 million weekend but then rolled over and died in subsequent weeks amid terrible word-of-mouth reviews. That movie crawled to $132.2 million in sales, seemingly a respectable total but actually meager considering its huge first weekend.

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.

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."

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.

"With all the naysayers, this is a huge accomplishment," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal. "For months, they thought this was going to be a bomb."

The new movie is not a sequel to 2003's "Hulk" but, in Marvel's terms, a reboot. Many fans found the earlier movie too dark and brooding.