By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
‘Cock of the Walk
Where there’s a Will (Smith), there’s a weigh (ty) opening and his latest, Hancock, easily out-paced the Independence holiday frame competition with a debut weekend gross estimated at $66.3 million. There was scant incoming competition though Kit Kittredge: An American Girl went wide and generated a disappointing $3.2 million that ranked it eighth overall on the charts.
Conversely there was torrid activity in niche and specialized realms. Dueling Bollywood entries saw audiences opting for the more traditional Jaane Tu Yu Janne Na that grossed a hearty 242,000 while the expensive, futuristic Love Story 2050 eked out a torpid $74,600 from almost twice as many playdates. There was excellent response for the aggressively released Hunter Thompsondoc Gonzo of $174,000 from 25 screens and potent returns for exclusive runs of American indie and Sundance fave The Wackness of about $130,000 from six sites and French thriller Tell No One of $160,000 from eight venues. In a sole Manhattan engagement, another indie, Kabluey, bowed to an impressive $7,900.
Overall business was slightly down from 2007 but last year’s Wednesday celebration was disadvantaged by its mid-week placement.
Hancock, the wry take on movie superheroes, was highly anticipated thanks to Smith’s participation and pundits were generally expecting its 5 ½ day tally to ring up somewhere in the range of $115 – $125 million. The marginally lower result might be attributable to misinterpreted data, good weather or generally downbeat critical response. Regardless, exit polls once again reflected the performer’s appeal to both genders as well as roughly equal drawing power for younger and older audiences.
Internationally Hancock bowed in 50 countries and generated an estimated $78 million. In the U.K. it opened to $13 million, Australian box office was $7.4 million while Brazil added $2.5 million. It generally ranked first including a $1 million total in the depressed German market and will easily wind up generating at least 50% more than domestic box office that’s likely to have difficulty exceeding $200 million if it fails to sustain against upcoming blockbusters.
Following strong numbers in exclusive runs, Kit Kittredge went wide for the holidays as counter-programming to the weekend behemoth. However, the result proved to be a mismatch on the order ofBambi meets Godzilla and the pre-teen literary giant wussed out with theater averages of less than $1,800.
Weekend box office dipped slightly below $180 million or 11% diminished from seven days earlier. It was also 5% behind the 2007 pace when the debut of Transformers led with a $70.5 million weekend and counter-programmed freshman entry License to Wed ranked with a $10.4 million gross.
Holdover titles generally experienced drops between 40% and 50% including a sharper than expected 46% sophomore session drop for Wall-E. The latest Pixar animated entry is experiencing stiffer than expected competition from Kung Fu Panda despite critical hosannas and appears to be headed toward a comparatively disappointing domestic run.
Weekend Estimates – July 4-6, 2008
Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % chan | Theaters | Cume |
Hancock | Sony | 66.3 (16,710) | – | 3965 | 107.6 |
Wall-E | BV | 33.9 (8,500) | -46% | 3992 | 128.6 |
Wanted | Uni | 20.8 (6,520) | -59% | 3185 | 90.9 |
Get Smart | WB | 11.2 (3,120) | -45% | 3574 | 98.1 |
Kung Fu Panda | Par | 7.5 (2,240) | -36% | 3347 | 193.5 |
The Incredible Hulk | Uni | 4.9 (1,600) | -49% | 3043 | 124.8 |
Indiana Jones | Par | 3.9 (1,790) | -24% | 2192 | 306.7 |
Kit Kittredge | Picturehouse | 3.2 (1,740) | 2900% | 1843 | 5.7 |
Sex and the City | WB | 2.4 (1,860) | -38% | 1275 | 144.9 |
Don’t Mess with the Zohan | Sony | 1.9 (1,120) | -39% | 1731 | 94.7 |
The Love Guru | Par | 1.7 (630) | -69% | 2648 | 29.3 |
Iron Man | Par | 1.5 (1,500) | -32% | 1019 | 311.9 |
The Happening | Fox | 1.4 (780) | -64% | 1795 | 62 |
Mongol | Picturehouse | .85 (3,360) | 4% | 253 | 3.6 |
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspia | BV | .55 (1,360) | -47% | 403 | 128.8 |
Cruising Bar 2 | Alliance | .45 (3,780) | -50% | 120 | 1.7 |
The Visitor | Overture | .34 (1,940) | 15% | 176 | 8.1 |
Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na | UTV | .24 (6,920) | – | 35 | 0.24 |
The Strangers | Uni/Alliance | .22 (680) | -65% | 324 | 52 |
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $162.00 | – | – | – | |
% Change (Last Year) | – | -5% | – | – | – |
% Change (Last Week) | – | -11% | – | – | – |
Also debuting/expanding | |||||
Gonzo | Magnolia | .17 (6,960) | – | 25 | 0.17 |
Tell No One | Music Box | .16 (20,120) | – | 8 | 0.16 |
The Wackness | Sony Classi | .13 (21,030) | – | 6 | 0.13 |
Love Story 2050 | Adlabs | 74,600 (1,150) | – | 65 | 0.07 |
Diminished Capacity | IFC | 11,300 (2,830) | – | 4 | 0.01 |
Kabluey | Regent | 7,900 (7,900) | – | 1 | 0.01 |
Holding Trevor | Regent | 6,800 (3,400) | – | 2 | 0.01 |
Domestic Market Share – To July 3, 2008
Distributor (releases) | Gross | Market Share |
Paramount (12) | 1055.4 | 22.50% |
Warner Bros. (16) | 683.5 | 14.60% |
Fox (13) | 649.6 | 13.80% |
Universal (12) | 496.4 | 10.60% |
Sony (15) | 476.1 | 10.20% |
Buena Vista (10) | 475.1 | 10.20% |
Lions Gate (8) | 203.8 | 4.30% |
Fox Searchlight (5) | 150.6 | 3.20% |
Par Vantage (9) | 71.8 | 1.50% |
New Line (4) | 61.8 | 1.30% |
Focus (5) | 60.1 | 1.30% |
Miramax (5) | 48.1 | 1.00% |
MGM (9) | 46.4 | 1.00% |
Summit (2) | 34.9 | 0.70% |
Overture (3) | 28.5 | 0.60% |
Other * (176) | 149.7 | 3.20% |
* none greater than 0.45% | 4691.8 | 100.00% |
Top Grossers Canada – To June 26, 2008
Title | Distributor | Gross |
Iron Man | Par | 27,056,630 |
Indiana Jones & Kingdom of the Cryst | Par | 26,394,563 |
Sex and the City | WB | 15,701,296 |
Juno * | Fox | 14,809,547 |
Horton Hears a Who | Fox | 12,554,101 |
Kung Fu Panda | Par | 12,436,892 |
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspi | BV | 12,175,488 |
National Treasure: Book of Secrets * | BV | 11,573,264 |
10,000 B.C. | WB | 10,458,225 |
21 | Sony | 9,915,912 |
I Am Legend * | WB | 9,671,048 |
Alvin and the Chipmunks * | Fox | 9,318,547 |
27 Dresses | Fox | 8,922,972 |
What Happens in Vegas | Fox | 8,723,658 |
The Bucket List | WB | 8,400,593 |
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantan | Alliance | 8,319,460 |
Jumper | Fox | 8,254,128 |
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan | Sony | 8,127,918 |
The Incredible Hulk | Uni | 7,805,116 |
Step Up 2 | BV | 7,481,090 |
Top Global Grossers – To June 19, 2008
Title | Distributor | Gross |
Iron Man | Par | 300,785,869 |
Indiana Jones & Kingdom of the Cry | Par | 282,420,731 |
Horton Hears a Who | Fox | 153,493,503 |
Kung Fu Panda | Par | 133,896,159 |
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Ca | BV | 133,758,371 |
Sex and the City | WB | 125,920,375 |
Juno * | Fox Searchlight | 115,568,583 |
10,000 B.C. | WB | 94,784,201 |
The Bucket List * | WB | 92,781,554 |
National Treasure: Book of Secrets * | BV | 86,700,433 |
21 | Sony | 82,629,719 |
Cloverfield | Par | 80,048,433 |
Jumper | Fox | 79,914,335 |
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan | Sony | 76,855,203 |
27 Dresses | Fox | 76,808,654 |
What Happens in Vegas | Fox | 76,751,534 |
The Incredible Hulk | Uni | 74,919,370 |
Vantage Point | Sony | 73,083,080 |
The Spiderwick Chronicles | Par | 71,748,431 |
Fool’s Gold | WB | 70,321,498 |
* does not include 2007 box office |