Steve Carell took control of the North American box office with his action-comedy Get Smart which powered its way to an easy win at the multiplexes. Mike Myers starrer The Love Guru settled for a fourth place launch behind holdovers Kung Fu Panda and The Incredible Hulk which fought fiercely for the number two spot. Overall business cooled down after four scorching frames of stellar sales, but the marketplace was still comfortably ahead of year-ago levels.

A modern update on the classic 1960s spy series, Get Smart was what the public wanted as the Warner Bros. vehicle bowed to an estimated $39.2M from an ultrawide 3,911 locations to lead the box office this weekend. Averaging a solid $10,012 per site, the PG-13 film starring Carell as bumbling agent Maxwell Smart overcame weak reviews to post the best opening ever for the comedian in the lead role of a live-action film. Earlier this year he co-anchored with Jim Carrey the Dr. Seuss toon Horton Hears a Who! which debuted to $45M. Smart packed in extra starpower with Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, and Alan Arkin. After stumbling last month with its other television remake Speed Racer, Warner Bros. hit the jackpot this time around with a film that blended comedy with action giving audiences the kind of entertainment worth leaving home for. It was also the studio's biggest opening of the year so far, not counting New Line's Sex and the City which it handled distribution for.

Thanks to a solid hold, the animated comedy Kung Fu Panda bounced back up one spot to second place with an estimated $21.7M dropping only 35%. The 17-day total is now $155.6M for Paramount and DreamWorks. The Jack Black martial arts tale is still performing much like Pixar's 2006 June toon Cars which raced to a nearly identical $156.7M after 17 days. That film enjoyed a slightly better third lap grossing $23.3M for a slim 31% decline. Kung Fu Panda is still on course to surpass the $225M mark making it difficult for Pixar and Disney's next offering Wall-E to steal the animation crown for the summer. That toon invades multiplexes this Friday.

Very close behind in third was Universal's comic book reboot The Incredible Hulk which fell 61% to an estimated $21.6M for a ten-day tally of $96.5M. It was a better hold and gross compared to Ang Lee's Hulk from 2003 which suffered a stunning 70% freefall to $18.8M in its sophomore session for a ten-day cume of $100.6M. Incredible will probably find its way to about $140-145M domestically. The old Hulk finished with $132.2M five years ago which would translate to around $155M at today's ticket prices meaning the new Edward Norton vehicle will end up selling about 8% fewer ticket stubs. But the new film is well-liked by fans so the franchise now has a promising future. Overseas, The Incredible Hulk grossed an estimated $23.4M from 50 territories boosting the international take to $63.3M and the global gross to $159.8M with several key markets yet to open.

Settling for a fourth place debut was the new Mike Myers comedy The Love Guru which grossed an estimated $14M from 3,012 locations for a mild $4,648 average. Paramount's PG-13 pic about a self-help expert hired to fix a star hockey player's love life came in below expectations and was the smallest bow for a Myers comedy since the $9.5M of 1997's Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Panned by critics, Guru opened to $5.4M on Friday, dropped a troubling 12% on Saturday to $4.7M, and is projected to dip another 17% to $3.9M on Sunday.

M. Night Shyamalan's latest creepfest The Happening collapsed in its second weekend tumbling 67% to an estimated $10M pushing the ten-day total to $50.3M. The Fox release was the director's third consecutive film to tumble by 60% or more in the second weekend. The Mark Wahlberg starrer looks to finds its way to about $70M making it the second lowest grosser for Shyamalan since he hit it big with 1999's The Sixth Sense. Only 2006's Lady in the Water did worse with $42.3M.

It was another good hold for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skullwhich dropped 43% in its fifth frame to an estimated $8.4M. The Paramount release upped its cume to $290.8M putting the much-anticipated return of Indy at number 31 on the list of all-time domestic blockbusters after the $291.7M of 2005's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Comedy stars with stylish hair followed. Sony's You Don't Mess With the Zohan fell 56% to an estimated $7.2M giving the Adam Sandler pic $84.1M to date. Warner Bros. and New Line's Sex and the City held up better dipping only 34% to an estimated $6.5M boosting the domestic total to $132.4M. Add in the incredible $169.7M from overseas and the ladies of New York cruised past the $300M global mark this weekend with $350M well within reach.

Audiences still can't get enough of Iron Man which posted the smallest dip in the top ten for the third consecutive weekend. The Marvel super hero eased by 29% to an estimated $4M and raised its tally to a stunning $304.8M joining Juno as the only films this year to spend eight straight weeks in the top ten. The pregnancy comedy's total streak was ten frames including the final two weekends of 2007. Iron Man held steady at number 27 on the all-time list right behind the $305.4M of 2003's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Rounding out the top ten was the horror flick The Strangers with an estimated $1.9M, off 52%, for a $49.6M take for Universal.

Two films with very different production costs fell out of the top ten. Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian dropped 46% to an estimated $1.7M giving the fantasy sequel $135.5M to date. Budgeted at nearly $200M, the second installment in the C.S. Lewis series should finish up with about $140M which would be a sharp 52% decline from the $291.7M of its 2005 predecessor. The studio has two years to reignite interest in the franchise with the next film The Voyage of the Dawn Treader currently set to open on May 7, 2010, just one week after what is guaranteed to be a gargantuan debut for Iron Man 2.

Fox's $35M comedy What Happens in Vegas has been a big winner this summer and took in an estimated $770,000 this weekend falling 54%. The Cameron Diaz-Ashton Kutcher pic has banked $77.5M in winnings and should conclude with roughly $80M domestically. Overseas results have also been robust with Vegas collecting over $115M to date for a global tally north of $195M.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $134.4M which was up 10% from last year when Evan Almighty opened in the top spot with $31.2M; and up 8% from 2006 when Click debuted at number one with $40M.

Author: Gitesh Pandya, www.BoxOfficeGuru.com