Box Office Update 7/4-7/7: Will Smith Takes Hancock to the Top

Will Smith returned to the top of the box office. Hancock opened with a potent $103 million over its first five days of release. Despite the movie not receiving terribly strong reviews, Will Smith once again proved how big of a box office draw he is. Hancock is the eighth Will Smith film in a row to cross the century mark (a string that began with Men in Black II), besting the record seven that he had shared with Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise. In addition to that, Smith now has twelve $100 million plus earners. There is absolutely no denying his ability to appeal to all demographics. I do not think he is a particularly great actor, but he definitely has skills and is a very charismatic presence on the big screen.

For the three day weekend, Hancock easily beat all comers, although it did not climb as high as I was expecting. Of course, my estimation was way, way too high to begin with, not sure what I was thinking there. Anyway, The film pulled down $62 million over the three day holiday frame. As for the film itself, it introduced some interesting ideas to the mix but failed to pull them all together.

There was one other film to enter the top ten this week. In its first week of wide release, and third overall, the Abigail Breslin starring Kit Kittredge: An American Girl entered the list in eighth place. I had thought that this would do better in its wide release, but I am sure it will find an audience, although that may not be until DVD. The movie is a delightful little slice of life from another era from a young point of view. It is a fun film and you should give it a shot.

As for the rest of the list, most of the returning films fared well with better than average drops, likely buoyed by the holiday weekend. As far as small drops go, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull led the way with a drop of less than 24%. On the dollar front, Wall*E did well as it took in more than $33 million, with a drop of 47% in its second weekend.

Next week will see Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Journey to the Center of the Earth (with 3D presentations where available), and Meet Dave entering the fray. All of them hoping to get a piece of the pie before The Dark Knight arrives.

Two movies dropped off the top ten this week: The Love Guru (11) and The Happening (13).

This Week	Last Week	Title	Wknd Gross	Overall	Week in release
1	N	Hancock	$62,603,879	$103,877,446	1
2	1	Wall*E	$32,509,203	$127,196,028	2
3	2	Wanted	$20,050,070	$90,186,395	2
4	3	Get Smart	$11,109,408	$98,100,652	3
5	4	Kung Fu Panda	$7,318,635	$193,221,867	5
6	5	The Incredible Hulk	$4,899,280	$124,841,395	4
7	7	Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	$3,774,807	$306,428,521	7
8	23	Kit Kittredge: An American Girl	$3,296,929	$5,822,544	3
9	9	Sex and the City	$2,382,438	$144,891,325	6
10	10	You Don't Mess with the Zohan	$1,981,251	$94,773,156	5

Box Office Predictions Recap
This weekend has to be tagged with the label: "What was I thinking?" Well, I guess many of these guesstimation tables could be tagged like that. For some reason I thought the Will Smith fueled Hancock would be much stronger through the weekend than it ended up being. I guess the mediocre reviews and the fact that its screenings began Tuesday evening allowed those who were interested plenty of time to catch it. As for Kit Kittredge? It is a good movie. I figured it would open stronger than it did, but I guess Wall*E did a lot to soak up the family dollar.

Here is how the field matched up:

Actual	Prediction	Title	Wknd Gross	Prediction
1	1	Hancock	$62,603,879	$96 million
2	2	Wall*E	$32,509,203	$48 million
3	3	Wanted	$20,050,070	$24 million
8	4	Kit Kittredge: An American Girl	$3,296,929	$13 million
4	5	Get Smart	$11,109,408	$12 million
5	6	Kung Fu Panda	$7,318,635	$7 million
6	7	The Incredible Hulk	$4,899,280	$5 million
7	8	Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	$3,774,807	$4.5 million
11	9	The Love Guru	$1,806,545	$4 million
9\13	10	The Happening	$1,438,889	$3.5 million