Dominating the long Fourth of July weekend, the Will Smith-starring action comedy movie opened atop the North American box office chart with a total of about 107.3 million dollar.
- Jul 7, 2008
AceShowbiz - Making its debut on the long Fourth of July holiday proved to give great head start for Will Smith-actioneer "Hancock". The action drama movie got an early run to the top of box office chart when it hit the theaters on Tuesday, July 1, night with $6.8 million and another $17.4 million on the following day. The moderate debut was later followed with an impressive sales over the weekend giving it a place atop the box office as well as among the high grossing movies of all time.
Raking in $62.6 million during its three-days weekend, the Peter Berg-directed film strongly nailed the No. 1 box office slot. With the impressive weekend number, it has collected in total of $103.9 million for its five and a half days screening and become the third biggest Fourth of July opener following "Transformers" with $155.4 million over the six and a half days it was shown in 2007 and "Spider-Man 2" with $152.3 million over its five and a half days of viewing in 2004. Apart from its powerful domestic debut, it has also pulled in a striking estimation of $78.5 million from its overseas sales.
The success of "Hancock" scoring big over the weekend cannot be separated from the fact that the Columbia Pictures' tidbit is starred by one of the most bankable Hollywood actors today, Smith. Marking Smith's second-highest opener ever after the amazing run by "I Am Legend" in late 2007, the film has become Smith's eight flick in a row to open first on the North America box office. Additionally, it is the actor's fifth and most successful Fourth of July opening movie topping "Independence Day", "Men in Black II" and "Wild Wild West". Noting Smith's part, Rory Bruer, Sony domestic distribution president, stated, "The Will Smith business is a great business to be in. It's not just a matter of audiences loving him, but they love the characters he plays."
Hot on "Hancock" tail on the second slot was the robot romantic drama "Wall-E". The Disney/Pixar animated movie still displayed an impressive run at the box office adding $32.5 million to its two weeks total of $127.1 million. Breaking the $100 million mark after only 10-days of screening, it became third-best standing of a Pixar's film after "The Incredibles" and "Finding Nemo".
Sliding to the third place was Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy-starrer action film "Wanted (2008)". The Timur Bekmambetov's movie experienced a decrease of 60.6|percent| resulting it to garner $20 million on its second weekend. Rounding out the top five box office were two different comedy movies. In respective order, they were Steve Carell's action comedy "Get Smart" with $11.1 million and Jack Black's animated comedy "Kung Fu Panda" with $7.3 million.
