'Zohan' Embraced by Israelis

Though American audiences haven't become as consumed by You Don't Mess With the Zohan as they have Adam Sandler movies in the past, it's coming up big in a surprising location: Israel. Despite Sandler's over-the-top portrayal as a former Israeli Mossad agent who becomes a New York hairdresser, crowds have been been packing houses since the movie opened there last Wednesday. The frank sexual presence of the character, coupled with bad clothes, disco interruptions, lots of jokes about the eternal war between Jews and Palestinians, and gags about the many uses of hummus have not turned off the usually picky Israeli movie fans. In fact, it's just the opposite. "I wasn't insulted at all. It was funny. Exaggerated, but funny," said Guy Ben-Yaacov, 23. "Besides, I know a few guys like Zohan." However, just as in this country, Zohan is facing some critical scorn. Film critic Amir Kaminer, has his share of problems with the movie while acknowledging that Zohan is the most prominent Isreali character out of Hollywood since Paul Newman in Exodus. Accurately portraying the film as "vulgar and stupid," Kaminer insisted, "We're not all about eating hummus, killing Arabs and fornicating. We do other things as well." That's true. They also disco!

Box Office - Everybody Was 'Kung Fu' Fighting

Kung Fu Panda was the week's big winner, debuting with $60 million, a pretty good number for an animated film (the tenth highest all-time, in fact), which was more than enough to fight off the challenge of Adam Sandler in You Don't Mess With the Zohan. Still, don't feel sorry for Zohan; the movie is Sandler's fifth-best opening ever, although he has seven films that kicked things off with three-day totals between $37 and $42 million, so this is kind of his average. Panda beat last year's debut by Ratatouille, which puts a little pressure on Wall-E, due at the end of the month and squaring off against a hype-fueled Wanted. Since we know that opening weekends produce about a third of a film's overall audience, and because we know there's three weeks before another family movie comes out, Kung Fu Panda might be able to push itself past the $200 million mark. In other news, we predicted a major slump for Sex and the City, and boy did it deliver, losing 62% of its opening weekend crowd and finishing behind Indiana Jones in fourth place. Indy is now over the $250 million mark, and should - should - make it to $300 million by July 4th. The Strangers continued its strong push, having now quadrupled its budget to become, dollar-for-dollar, one of the most productive movies of the summer.

Box Office - Friday's Big for the 'Panda' Express

It appears that the first full weekend in June will go exactly according to plan. Kung Fu Panda charged out of the gate on Friday, earning $20 million according to Box Office Mojo, and Adam Sandler's You Don't Mess With the Zohan proved he still has enough muscle to make noise in the multiplex.

The new releases are expected to open in first and second place, and unless something catastrophic happens between now and Monday, the first competitive weekend of the summer will wind up exactly that way. Last week, Sex and the City made $26 million on opening day, leveling off mightily over the rest of the weekend. I actually expect Kung Fu Panda's numbers to rise significantly today, because this is traditionally the biggest day of the weekend for family films, meaning we could see a repeat of Sex's $56 million performance from a week ago, even with Sarah Jessica Parker's $6 million head start. As for Zohan, $15 million is nothing to sneeze at. If it were in the same number of theaters as Kung Fu Panda, that number would be about $18 million. Still, Sandler's latest should open in the $40 - $45 million range, a little higher than we gave it credit for in our Thursday forecast, and enough to set him up for his sixth $100 million-earning comedy in a row.

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Fearless Forecast - 'Panda' Will Mess With the 'Zohan'

This weekend at the box office won't be as cut and dry as most of them have been this summer. I know a lot of people picked Indiana Jones to go two-for-two last weekend, but we called it differently, and for the first time in a long time, we were vindicated.

I guess you'd say that Kung Fu Panda will be the consensus pick as the weekend's top film. It has a ton of great reviews and it's family friendly. But with a new Adam Sandler movie in theaters, he could play the spoiler. It stands to reason that both Kung Fu Panda and You Don't Mess With the Zohan will do very well; I expect there to be about a $15 million difference between them, which is significant, but it's been an unpredictable six weeks, so Zohan might do a lot better and Panda may come out soft. Then again, Sandler's new movie is being released at a time when big name comedians have clearly suffered. Ben Stiller's The Heartbreak Kid tanked, as did Will Ferrell's Semi-Pro and the Judd Apatow-produced Drillbit Taylor. Sandler has always been coated with teflon, so he might be fine. Zohan's not the sturdiest idea for a movie, so that could mean a less than rosy weekend, too. Still, we'll side with the teflon until we start to see it chip off.

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Sandler, Apatow, Rogen to Make "Hilarious" Drama About Comedy

Former roommates Judd Apatow and Adam Sandler teamed up for You Don't Mess With the Zohan, which will probably do Sandler-like business when it hit theaters next week. But they won't wait long to work together again.

Sandler tells MTV that they'll be making a movie about life on the stand-up comedy circuit, which co-star Seth Rogen told a crowd at a Q & A is "hilarious by default." Sandler seems to have some misgivings about the concept. "I've got to write an act again. It's been a long time. I haven't done stand-up in, like, 10 years. Even more," admitted Adam. "That's why I want to kill Judd Apatow right now. I was so much happier doing nothing!" Sandler confirms that he'll probably try his act out in the comedy clubs of Los Angeles later this summer, trying to sharpen his skills. "You will see me bomb for 15 minutes and walk off [the stage] and punch Judd," Sandler said.

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