Will Smith, box-office hero!
Photo: Columbia Pictures

As Steve Mason points out in his early Friday box-office estimate article, July 4th falling on a Friday is not the best of news. The chances the same number of people heading out to the theater for a movie on a July 4th Friday aren't the same as say a Wednesday. However, that isn't stopping Will Smith's poorly reviewed Hancock from scoring over $100 million in it's five-day weekend along with scoring the second best July 4th performance just behind Spider-Man 2.

Hancock scored $41.3 million in its first two-and-a-half days of release thanks to a limited number of screenings on Tuesday, July 1st. The early estimate for Friday are $18 million, playing July 4th number two to Spider-Man 2, which amassed $21.95 back in 2004. Mason's predictions for the rest of the weekend have Hancock bringing in about $103.23 million for the five-day weekend. This will give Will Smith 12 films reaching $100 million, placing him fourth with Harrison Ford behind Tom Hanks (15), Tom Cruise (14) and Eddie Murphy (13). Goes to show, he is the current man of box-office steel, bad reviews obviously don't phase his films and with Seven Pounds coming out later this year as a potential Oscar contender reuniting him with Pursuit of Happyness helmer Gabriele Muccino, which means the critics will once again have a chance to love him.

WALL•E added an estimated $10 million to its cume on Friday and estimates have it bringing in $38.5 million for the weekend bringing the little robot's total up to $133.1 million, making it the third best 10-day opening for Pixar, behind Finding Nemo and The Incredibles by about $10 million. Nemo went on to make almost $340 million, while The Incredibles earned $261 million. These kinds of numbers give WALL•E a definite chance at cracking the $250 million mark, how much further beyond that is hard to guess.

Laremy predicted Wanted to hit $31.3 million for the weekend, but it appears the actioner is taking a much harder hit than anticipated after an impressive $50.9 million opening. Estimates have Wanted bringing in $5.5 million on Friday and an expected three-day approaching $22.5 million. Seems a lot of people turned out opening weekend, but perhaps word-of-mouth wasn't too good. I know the film slowly lost my interest after posting my B+ review, of which I now wish had been a B-.

Get Smart should end the weekend just shy of the $100 million mark, Kung Fu Panda is going to crack $190 million and as Mason puts it, the Abigail Breslin starrer Kit Kittredge: An American Girl "is a full-on disaster" as it aims to bring in only $3.5 million for THE ENTIRE WEEKEND! Yikes, that is miserable.

I have posted Mason's complete early estimates below, come back on Sunday for Laremy's complete recap.

1. Hancock (Sony) — $18 million
2. WALL•E (Disney) — $10 million
3. Wanted (Universal) — $5.5 million
4. Get Smart (Warner Bros.) — $3 million
5. Kung Fu Panda (Dreamworks/Paramount) — $2 million
6. The Incredible Hulk (Universal) — $1.2 million
7. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Paramount) — $1.1 million
8. Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (Picturehouse) — $900,000 million
9. Sex and the City (Warner Bros.) — $750,000
10. The Love Guru (Paramount) — $625,000

Related post categories: Box-Office News : Get Smart, Hancock, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, Kung Fu Panda, WALL-E, Wanted

Permalink   |   RSS Feed | No comments yet