Hellboy Overtakes Hancock At Box Office – No One Wants To Meet Dave

This weekend audiences weren’t content to just rest on their laurels while they waited for The Dark Knight to come out on July 18th. Instead, they substituted a pair of other comic book characters for the Caped Crusader and provided hefty box office for both Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Hancock.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army managed to open big and outscore Hancock in it’s second weekend to score the number one spot at the box office this weekend with an estimated box office total of $35.9M. The Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) directed film opened 55% better than the $23.2M bow of the first Hellboy and averaged a robust $11,200 from 3,204 theaters. The studio is keeping options open for a sequel, but the film is very much a del Toro product at this point and he will be busy for the next three years shooting back-to-back Hobbit films in New Zealand.

Hancock was a close second place finisher in its second weekend dropping only 47% to an estimated $33M to boost its cume to a hefty $165M after twelve and a half days. With the weekend box office take Hancock has now become Will Smith’s fifth consecutive $150M+ blockbuster which only further cements his “league-of-his-own” superstar status. Hancock has a rough road ahead of it since The Dark Knight is likely to take a lot of business next weekend, but the film should still top out around the $250M mark domestically. Internationally, Hancock has already netted $180.2M in sales putting the worldwide total for the film at an astonishing $345M in less than two weeks. The $150M production could reach $500-600M worldwide.

Journey to the Center of the Earth starring Brendan Fraser opened decently in third place with an estimated $20.6M. Great reviews did little to help the film play in theaters that weren’t equipped with 3D. In theaters that did have 3D the film averaged close to $20,000 per playdate, but in theaters that were only 2D the movie only managed to average a paltry $2,000 each. Still, the $60M film has proven the viability of 3D systems in theaters and will probably be responsible for convincing many theaters to make the change.

Wall-E continued to hold well dropping only 43% to an estimated $18.5M in its third frame which was good enough for fourth place over the weekend. Wall-E which opened bigger than last year’s Ratatouille had a worse third weekend than that film, however, and now has an almost identical box office tally after three weeks. Unfortunately, the far superior Wall-E is meeting much stronger competition and will not have the same legs as Ratatouille did. Wall-E should still be able to find its way to around $220M domestically, however, which should be good enough to beat Kung Fu Panda for the animated box office crown.

Speaking of Kung Fu Panda, did you know that Angelina Jolie voices one of the characters in that film? Did you also know that Angelina Jolie finally delivered her twins this weekend? Did you also know that Angelina Jolie stars in Wanted which was this weekend’s fifth highest grossing film with an estimated box office take of $11.6M? How’s that for a segue?

Wanted has now reached a cumulative total of around $112M which means that (together with the aforementioned Kung Fu Panda) Jolie now has the same number of $100M grossing movies as she does children (six each). Busy weekend for her.

You’ve no doubt noticed that I have yet to mention Eddie Murhy’s Meet Dave. The reason for that is that I have only discussed the top five films of the weekend. We have to go all the way down to number seven to find Meet Dave. Okay, it’s not really that far, but it’s still pretty bad for a wide release film. In fact, Meet Dave opened in 3,011 theaters but only managed to average an anemic $1,760 for a box office total of just $5.3M, according to estimates. If you’re keeping track it was the third worst opening in box office history for a film released in more than 3,000 theaters and the worst by far for a star-driven film. The only films to open on more than 3,000 screens and open worse were last year’s The Seeker: The Dark is Rising ($3.7M from 3,141 sites) and 2006’s Hoot ($3.4M from 3,018 sites).

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull managed to pull in an estimated $2.3M in its eighth weekend which was good enough to keep it in the top ten (tenth place). The overall cume for the film now sits at $310.5M which is within striking distance of Iron Man’s current $313.4M (and the title of Top Grosser of the Year). Of course, the battle could mean little if Warner Bros. has their way. They certainly hope that The Dark Knight makes it a three picture race before the summer is done.

Weekend Box Office (July 11–13, 2008)

Next week, the ABBA inspired/my-mother-was-a-bit-of-a-slut musical, Mamma Mia!, geared towards (I’m guessing) women and gays opens against Space Chimps – a movie not even monkey-loving kids will choose to watch over the half a dozen other movies that are already out that are geared towards them.

Oh yeah, The Dark Knight opens too.