Competing for Most Laughs, 'Get Smart' Outsmarted 'Love Guru' at the Box Office

Last Friday on June 20, "Get Smart" and "The Love Guru", two new comedy movies starred by top Hollywood comedians started to battle it out in the theaters to gain box office glory, but as in any other competition one will come out victorious while the other can only watch. In this case, "Smart" starring Steve Carell outlaughed Mike Myers' "Guru" by far nailing the crowned spot and leaving "Guru" on the fourth place.

Winning the number one slot of the North American weekend box office, the spy spoof movie raked in an impressive $38.7 million from 3,911 theaters making it the second #1 summer movie adapted from a television show following "Sex and the City" and becoming the second biggest live-action comedy opener of 2008 after "SATC". It also brought biggest bow movie throughout the career of its main stars, Carell whose "Evan Almighty" topped last year chart with $31 million, Anne Hathaway whose "The Devil Wears Prada" debuted with $27.5 million and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson whose "The Game Plan" ruled the box office on its first weekend screening with nearly $23 million.

Sitting comfortably on the top slot on the chart, "Smart" outsold "Guru" by more than $20 million. Generating much degrading reviews from movie critics earlier, "Guru" only managed to pull in $13.9 million on its opening weekend. The Paramount Pictures' comedy became the second major summer movie flop following "Speed Racer" which opened with $18.6 million and it also marked Myers' worst opening since the $7 million debut of "View From the Top" in which he co-starred with Gwyneth Paltrow.

The other three slots in the top five displayed strong contenders, "The Incredible Hulk", "Kung Fu Panda" and "The Happening". Edward Norton's "Hulk" slipped to the runner-up position with a 60.1% decline in sales collecting another $22.1 million to add for its cume of $97.1 million. Meanwhile, though still showing a strong performance in the sales, "Panda" was thrown out from the second slot to the third with $21.9 million in its third weekend screening and thus garnered a total of $155.8 million. Rounding up the top five was M. Night Shyamalan's thriller "Happening" which brought in $10.5 million on its second weekend.