Box Office: Will Smith Rules Again

Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on July 6, 2008

Well, Will Smith is once again at a familiar spot — on top of the box office with a $100-million dollar hit movie. Or more precisely, $107.3 million dollars, because that was the opening week haul for Hancock. It’s his fifth straight Fourth of July weekend at the top of the box office, and his eighth straight Number One. It also ranks as his second-biggest opening weekend of all time after I Am Legend.

And once again I look at the numbers and wonder what could have happened “if only” things had been different had this flick received a better reception with the critics. I read that a few weeks back people were predicting upwards of $140 million for this flick this week. And it didn’t happen, thanks to the bad buzz.

So we have yet another non-blockbuster blockbuster, and this has to be driving people crazy in Hollywood. For the last few weeks this hasn’t been too big a problem because there was a glut of movies making money and overall business had been up from last year. But this week, it’s been reported that business for the top 12 movies was off 4 per cent from 2007. Ouch.

Here is how the final numbers look from the 3-day holiday weekend.

In the race for first place overall this summer Indiana Jones 4 is now up to $306 million but Iron Man continues to hold the lead at $311 million. The gap has been continuing to close, though I think a lot of people expected Indiana Jones 4 to have topped the charts by now. Anyway, we’ll see if The Dark Knight is going to mount a serious challenge to those numbers soon enough.

I really don’t have much more to add. This was basically the result that everyone expected at the box office, with Will Smith raking in the dough again.

That’s all for now. See you later this week when The Reject Report Meets Dave. Until then, don’t get too sun-baked.

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