U.S Box Office Report - 11th - 13th July 2008

1. Hellboy II: The Golden Army - $35.8M - $35.8
2. Hancock - $33.4M - $165M
3. Journey to the Center of the Earth - $20.5M - $20.5M
4. WALL-E - $18.5M - $162.7M
5. Wanted - $11.5M - $112M
6. Get Smart - $7.1M - $111.4M
7. Meet Dave - $5.3M - $5.3M
8. Kung Fu Panda - $4.3M - $202M
9. Kit Kittredge: An American Girl - $2.3M - $11M
10. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $2.2M - $310M

Three new films opened wide this weekend, all going for a slightly different demographic but all sharing a number of the same fans, not to mention facing the one man blockbuster army that is Will Smith. Hellboy II narrowly took the top spot, with a much stronger performance than its prequel four years ago. The original movie didn't actually do all that well at the box office, finishing its domestic run with $59M, but went on to perform exceptionally well on DVD. Second time around and director Guillermo Del Toro has not only stepped up the visual FX and creature creation but the story as well, scoring the film some very impressive reviews.


The word of mouth should see this continue to do well over the coming week and its upcoming international take should allow the film to recoup its $85M budget. Unfortunately for Hellboy, The Dark Knight is direct competition and will hit its box office even harder than normal next weekend. A little series of films called The Hobbit are next for Del toro.

Its domestic take alone has already helped Hancock recoup its production budget. On top of that its international take is over $100M, pushing the film to a total global box office of over $275M in just 10 days. Cinema goers weren't phased by reviews or less than stellar reports from friends, they just wanted to see Will Smith drunkenly smash stuff up. In its second weekend Hancock is off roughly 47%, which is good considering the odd characteristics of last weekend's box office run thanks to a July 4th Friday. It should easily see $200M in the coming weeks but it's doubtful, given the competition, that we'll see I Am Legend type numbers from this one.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth is a victim of its own hype. The film is meant to be seen in 3D and the adverts and reviews especially have been keen to point out how the 3D helps paper over any cracks in the script. Unfortunately for Journey, only 984 screens are showing it in 3D meaning that a number of interested people haven't bothered going to see it simply because it's not available in their area. Beowulf suffered a similar fate, with so many reviewers pointing out how fantastic it was in Imax theatres that most either waited until they could travel to one or just didn't bother going to see it. It's not a bad start for Journey given its almost low-budget status of just $45M, and it did have to share some of the family market with Wall E. It's success in the 3D arena could mean it'll endure a better percentage drop next weekend as more people continue to seek it out in the format for which it was designed. Others watching it in 2D may wonder what all the fuss is about. Brendan Fraser will return to screens within the month for the big budget sequel The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

Wall E sees $150M this weekend as the film continues to dig itself into the top ten (a trait shared by nearly all Pixar movies). It took some market heat this weekend from Journey to the Centre of the Earth but still managed to stop a bigger than expected drop such as that endured last weekend. Wall E is still well on track to reach $200M but probably won't be troubling the $244M made by Cars. Space Chimps might dent it ever so slightly next weekend but should be nothing to write home about.

Wanted is getting hit from all sides and will continue to do so into next weekend. It had managed to cross the $100M mark during Thursday so its all plain sailing from here on out for the Angelina Jolie action thriller. In the international market the film is doing well with a current take of over $70M. Unlike Wall E which relies on the family market seeing the film when they can, the majority of Wanted fans turned out to see the film on the first weekend, meaning its weekend to weekend drops have been higher. Given the film has already doubled its budget when you factor in its total box office, a sequel entering pre-production can only be a few short months away.

Get Smart and Kung Fu Panda have been been successful films that are now being overshadowed by newer box office competition (Hancock & Wall E respectively). Get Smart has recouped its budget and crossed the $100M mark while Kung Fu Panda has done the same but on a bigger scale, hitting $200M during Sunday ticket sales.

Our final new entry is the Eddie Murphy multi-role disaster Meet Dave. With so many appealing films in the top ten this one didn't stand a chance. That said, if it was released in the middle of February and the only new release of the week it's still hard to see it doing any kind of business. Murphy had had double success with Dreamgirls and Norbit last year but Meet Dave marks a return to Pluto Nash style flops ($7M worldwide from a budget of $100M). He's currently shooting A Thousand Words but talk of retirement could see a Beverly Hills Cop sequel shelved. After the failing of Meet Dave, retirement might be a better idea.

Rounding us out, Kit Kittredge adds another couple of million and is clearly just happy to have made that. DVD beckons for the Abigail Breslin film. Meanwhile, Indiana Jones is facing its last weekend in the top ten as it edges within grasping distance of Iron Man. The hugely successful film now has a global total close to $750M.

Next weekend and it's a big one for two major demographics. We could see records broken on a number of fronts.