Box Office: Panda Vs. The Zohan

Sex and the City surprised a lot of people, not by doing well, but by doing extremely well, pushing Indiana Jones back to the number two spot for its second week of release. Last week's other new release, The Strangers, starring Liv Tyler, scared the American public out of a respectable amount of cash as well. Here are the numbers:

1. Sex and the City: $56.8 million
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: $44.7 million
3. The Strangers: $20.9 million
4. Iron Man: $13.5 million
5. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: $12.7 million

We've got two more new releases this week, both of which are going for the laughs.

What's It All About: A Kung Fu loving panda (voiced by Jack Black) must put work in the family noodle shop on hold when he is chosen to fulfill an ancient prophecy. Now he studies alongside martial arts experts Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey -- under the leadership of their guru, Master Shifu.
Why It Might Do Well: With all the big releases lately, there haven't been many geared toward the little ones, so I can see this one filling a void and Rottentomatoes.com gives it a 92% fresh rating.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Come on, he's a panda. What are you, some kind of panda hater? Heck, I suspect this will be next week's number one movie.
Number of Theaters: 3,600
Prediction: $56 million


You Don't Mess With the Zohan
What's It All About: Adam Sandler plays an Israeli commando who fakes his own death so he can follow his dream of becoming a New York hairstylist.
Why It Might Do Well: With a screenplay co-written by Judd Apatow, maybe the Apatow magic will rub off.
Why It Might Not Do Well: A 48% rotten rating at Rottentomatoes.com isn't devastating, but I can't decide if the trailer is pleasantly silly or just plain dopey.
Number of Theaters: 3,300
Prediction: $29 million

For next week, I'm betting Iron Man is finally going to drop out of the top five for its sixth week of release, with the family friendly Kung Fu Panda coming out on top. Here's my prediction:
1. Kung Fu Panda
2. You Don't Mess With the Zohan
3. Sex and the City
4. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
5. The Strangers

Lots of people proved more prescient than I by predicting Sex and the City would come out on top (I could have sworn Indiana Jones would take another week at number one), but only jessejames -- despite his assassination over a century ago at the hands of the coward Robert Ford -- pulled in a perfect score. Here's how we all did:

1. jessejames: 16
2. cubitfox: 12
2. Liz: 12
2. Erin: 12
3. Brent Todd: 10
4. sam: 9
4. Paul D: 9
5. I Eat Robots: 7
5. Siskel08: 7
5. Andrew: 7
5. Smiggy: 7
5. dtzamaras: 7
5. AJ Wiley: 7
5. DarkAgair: 7
5. Chris: 7
5. Roger1701: 7
6. Matt: 5
6. zach: 5
6. cough: 5
6. kevjohn: 5
6. Ray: 5
6. Gregory Rubenstein: 5
6. SlimGrady: 5
6. Mario: 5
6. Awesomepants: 5

Will Pandas kick box office butt, or will messing with Zohan prove to be their downfall? You tell us. Post your predictions for the top five movies in the comments section below before 5:00PM Eastern Time on Friday. One point for every top five movie correctly named, two points for every correct placement, and one extra point for the top movie.