The Happening smashed predictions and made $30,517,109 in the US alone. The numbers for Saturday and Sunday were down this is most likely due to bad word of mouth. The Happening came in the #3 spot this weekend with The Hulk and Kung Fu Panda in the number 1 and 2 spots. The Happening was playing in almost 3000 theaters while Kung Fu Panda and The Hulk were in more then 3600. Internationaly The Happening was the #1 film in the world making over $32 million in over 88 markets. While The Hulk made $31 million in 38 markets.
Fox and UTV must be happy that The Happening made back its $57 million production budget in 1 week with ticket sales totaling up to more then $62 million dollars world-wide. By next weekend I expect the movie to also make back its marketing cost world-wide. So M. Night Shyamalan is back and making big bucks for Hollywood.
Wired.com has a cool story about how factual The Happening is:
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/06/the-happening-s.html
**Spoilers May Be Ahead**
My Review
I went into The Happening with high hopes and I was not disappointed. Many people complained about the bad dialogue but I thought it really added to the B-movie feel that M.N.S. was trying to convey.
The opening scenes in Central Park were so beautiful. Then the action then moves to Philadelphia at the J.R. Masterman School which really looks great on camera. I thought Mark was great in this scene in the class room, it was very funny. M. Night really knows how to make a movie look great. The video of the zookeeper at the zoo looked pretty fake but this movie seemed to be an unapplogetic B-movie. One thing I really like about M. Night is the way he does most of the deaths in the movie with long shots that show the nature around the person/persons who are commiting suicide. This method works disturbingly well. Like when the Jeep crashes and Julian kills himself in the middle of the street.
I really like the scene when they are leaving the new home development and the sign says, "You Deserve This!".
Mrs. Jones house was very effective in this movie the look of the interior and exterior were very effective in conveying the mood. Betty Buckley's acting was very well done and this part of the movie delivered the most screams from my theater.
The ending in the final movie was much better then the ending that M. Night penned in the original screenplay. One thing about the new ending is how did everything seem to go back to normal. I wish instead of showing the scientist on the news they could of explained how things in Philly were almost back to normal. One thing I like about the end in 'The Green Effect' was how it showed people surviving the event around the world. In the movie this event only is happening in the North East of the US. The score by James Newton Howard was amazing and really went well with this film.
In my opinion the movie gets a B+ and it one of the best B-movies. A way to describe this movie is a mix between, The Birds, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the original) and The Blob.
