It was a very happy Father’s Day for Hollywood, as word came that total weekend box office grosses are up 24% over the same weekend last year, thanks mostly to a very credible performance by The Incredible Hulk. The big green guy brought in an estimated $54.5 million greenbacks, crashing it’s way to the top of the box office heap.

Kung Fu Panda dropped a respectable 43% from last week’s total, enough to come in second. Exit polls revealed that it was the film of choice for dads with young children to see this mini-holiday weekend.

Although M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening finished third, it still outperformed expectations, grossing an estimated $30.5 million. It actually beat The Incredible Hulk overseas — The Happening grossed an estimated $32.1 million, and The Incredible Hulk grossed about $31 million — even though The Happening played in about 2,000 fewer theaters outside of the US.

When you figure in the two films’ budgets, The Happening is more successful than it’s mean green competitor so far. Shyamalan’s film made back it’s entire $60 million budget in three days, while the Hulk only made back 57% of it’s $150 million budget. Neither figure includes marketing costs.

You Don’t Mess with the Zohan finished in the fourth spot, with an additional $16.4 million bringing it’s two-week total to $68.790 million. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was number No. 5, dropping a mere 41% to bring in $13.7 million. It’s domestic total is now $275.3 million, and it’s worldwide total is now close to $500 million.

Sex and the City and Iron Man are still going strong, finishing in the sixth and seventh spots, respectively. In its seventh week, Iron Man has more than doubled its $140 million production budget, while Sex’s $65 million production budget has been superseded with $119.919 million in total earnings in its third week.