U.S Box Office Report - 4th - 6th July 2008

1. Hancock - $66.0M - $107M
2. WALL-E - $33.4M - $128M
3. Wanted - $20.6M - $90.7M
4. Get Smart - $11.1M - $98.1
5. Kung Fu Panda - $7.5M - $193.3M
6. The Incredible Hulk - $4.9M - $124.9M
7. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $3.9M - $306.5M
8. Kitt Kittredge: An American Girl - $3.6M - $6.1M
9. Sex and the City - $2.3M - $144.8M
10. You Don't Mess With The Zohan - $2M - $94.7M
 
The July 4th Holiday is something of an enigma in terms of US holidays and the cinema going experience. Most holidays tend to push people into cinemas in their droves and to a degree, the days on either side of the fourth do experience this. The fourth itself becomes something of a dead zone though, and in this case with the fourth being a Friday, we can see takes similar to those on a normal Sunday. On the flip side it means that the Saturday and Sunday totals will often be higher so things tend (but not always) to balance out ok. What it does mean is that Friday to Friday drops for the holdover films (Wall-E and Wanted in particular) will be much higher than they normally would.

Hancock opened in some locations on Tuesday night and has been steadily making money the rest of the week. That high weekend total therefore seems almost record breaking but we're factoring in an extra two whole days of ticket sales. Remove that and things come down to earth a little but that still leaves Hancock as a tremendous success. Reviews on the Will Smith film haven't been too good with talk of a third act problem undoing some of the funnier work in the first third of the movie. Only I Am Legend had a big opening for a Will Smith movie and factoring in the earlier days total's (which Sony will be keen to) makes this one of his most successful openings in his filmography. Where will Hancock go from here? Smith is a global phenonmen and the film is opening either this weekend or next in almost every territory so we could be looking at a global box office total of $250M by next weekend. The film needed that strong start as domestically it will face off against three wide opening new releases all aiming for a slightly different market but all affecting Hancock in one way or another. I Am Legend opened to an impressive three-day total of $77M before it went on to take $256M. Will Hancock be as successful?

Wall-E and Wanted made nearly $120M between themselves last weekend but suffered this frame due to the July 4th situation mentioned above. Wall-E fared better over the rest of the weekend than Wanted did but given that Wanted is already in profit, this shouldn't create too many headaches. Wall-E tailed off over last Sunday but would go on to take an average of $7M a day up until Friday, when it took $9M and crossed the $100M mark. It took Ratatouille an extra day to reach $100M and that didn't have to face a holiday Friday. Word of mouth for the film is spectacular and it'll be one of the few films that shouldn't be as affected by the new releases next weekend. Wanted on the other hand, will be directly affected by Hellboy II but has already done what it came to do. Factoring in the international box office of the film, it's already well over $120M, from a budget of $75M. Expect Wanted 2 to enter pre-production within the year.

The rest of the top ten all suffered but got a slight boost for the rest of the weekend. Get Smart should see $100M in the coming week while Kung Fu Panda should take a few more days to see $200M. Both films should make a tidy profit. Of note, Get Smart has already seen a straight to DVD companion movie starring two of the minor characters (one played by Heros Masi Oka) of the film. With Kung Fu Panda now the most successful non-Shrek Dreamworks film, expect a sequel in a couple of years. (The Madagascar sequel is released in November).

Indiana Jones is a few weeks older than The Incredible Hulk yet only a few hundred thousand seperates their weekend totals. Hulk still hasn't surpassed the total made by its 2003 prequel and may not do before leaving the top ten. On the international market the film isn't fairing a great deal better, with its total still being a long way short of the $113M set by the first film. Indiana Jones is now closing in on the Iron Man total and may surpass it by next weekend. The film has now made more than $720M and is easily the biggest film of 2008 so far.

A new entry drops in at seven. Kitt Kittredge stars Abigail Breslin and is based on a series of childrens books. It's actually the fourth film based on the character but the first to open theatrically. This is the kind of film that'll vanish very quickly but make a small fortune on DVD. As we've seen before, a film like this is just one big advert for the film's DVD release. It'll be lucky to see another weekend in the top ten but its already done its job.

Sex and The City is also seeing its last weekend on the charts and leaves with its head held high. The film has a global box office total of $350M and has been so successful that it even prompted rumours of a 'Friends' movie being in the works. Zohan managed to cling onto a spot in the top ten somehow but won't see $100M for a couple of weeks at least, at which point it'll be just a memory. The Love Guru on the other hand is out of the top ten in less than a month on release and may well be on DVD by September. Will Myers revive Wayne's World (had a successful showing at the MTV awards last month) or Austin Powers?