Will Smith’s Hancock, a comedy/adventure about a drunken superhero, overcame bad reviews (only 36% positive according to Rotten Tomatoes) and steamrolled its way to an easy triumph at the box office with an estimated total of $66 million and a five and one-half day total of $107.3 million. With a CinemaScore of B+ it remains to be seen if Hancock, which was Will Smith’s 8th number one opening in a row, will surpass the $300 mark and compete with Iron Man and Indy 4 for the summer box office crown, but many analysts think it will fall short of the $300 million barrier. Hancock’s performance next weekend, when it will face off against Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, should to a long way toward determining if this most recent Will Smith vehicle will live up to expectations. Overall the box office for the Fourth of July weekend was down 7% versus last year’s holiday frame, which was led by Transformers' stellar debut.
Pixar’s Wall-E dropped a higher than expected 47%, but still earned an estimated $33.4 million and brought its cumulative to $128.1 million. It’s still too early to tell how this robot saga will end up in relation to the studio’s other releases, and way too soon to count the little robot out. While a second weekend 47% drop for Pixar feature is considered bad, it would be a stellar performance for an action film like Wanted, particularly if it faced competition from the debut of a star-powered feature like Hancock. Wanted’s box office total was off 59.5% to an estimated $20.6 million, which brings its total take to $90 million. Wanted’s decline was actually not bad for an action film in this era when 60%+ drops are common, and its $6,470 per venue average indicates that it may have some staying power.
In its fourth week in theaters, Marvel Studios’ The Incredible Hulk fell to sixth place but still earned nearly $5 million, bringing its cumulative to $125 million. Unfortunately the not-so-jolly green giant averaged only $152 more per theater than Iron Man, which fell to #12 in its 10th week of release. The race for summer box office supremacy is getting close now with Iron Man’s total at $311.7 million and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at $306.6 million.
The major disappointment of the Fourth of July weekend was PictureHouse’s Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, which is based on the upscale line of dolls from Mattel's American Girl subsidiary, and which had done very well in two weekends of limited release before expanding to nearly 1,850 theaters this past weekend. In spite of good reviews (79% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) this depression-era saga earned just $1,953 per venue and finished eighth, well below projections.
