Hancock Update
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Will Smith pulled in $17.4M in ticket sales on Wednesday
for his new superhero actioner Hancock in
its first full day of release. Add in Tuesday night's $6.8M in previews
and the Sony tentpole has now collected $24.2M in its first day-and-a-half
in cinemas. Though a strong number, the figure lags behind what the Fourth
of July offerings from the last few years made on their midweek opening
days.
Last year, Transformers bowed to a stunning $27.9M on a Tuesday, 2006's Superman Returns debuted to a $21M Wednesday, and 2005's War of the Worlds launched with $21.3M, also on a Wednesday. Michael Bay's robot actioner went out with night-before previews just like Hancock did while the others premiered at midnight on Tuesday night with grosses counted towards Wednesday. Hancock's opening day did climb 40% higher than Terminator 3's $12.4M debut in 2003 when the calendar was the same. The Will Smith pic has three major advantages over the Schwarzenegger sequel - a friendlier rating (PG-13 vs. R), five years of ticket price increases, and 461 more theaters (3,965 vs. 3,504). Interestingly, many critics have compared Smith's new vehicle to Schwarzenegger's 1993 summer dud Last Action Hero. Terminator went on to launch with $44M over its Friday-to-Sunday period and $72.4M across the extended Tuesday-to-Sunday span. Should Hancock continue to outgross Terminator's daily takes by 40%, it would finish with $100-105M by the end of the holiday weekend. For a NEW review of Hancock visit The Chief Report. |
Last Updated: July 3, 2008 at 4:00PM ET
Written by Gitesh Pandya