Saturday, July 5
SATURDAY AM: Sony Pictures' Hancock received the bounce it needed, up 9% from Thursday, to make $18.5 million on Fourth of July Friday from 3,965 theaters. That gives the Will Smith dramedy $59.8M from its first 3 1/2 days. The studio expects a 3-day weekend in the low $60sM to put Hancock "comfortably over 100" for the 5 days -- somewhere between $102M-$105M. read more
FRIDAY 9:00 p.m. (Pacific): Exhibitors and distributors alike were less-than-thrilled with the prospect of Independence Day landing on a Friday. The 4th of July is not a traditionally strong day for movie-going because of the beach or the lake, family barbeques and, of course, fireworks. With the holiday landing on a Friday, the industry expected to take this hit on a key day of the week, where a significant chunk of tickets are sold. read more
Friday, July 4
Most of the top 10 movies were up significantly Wednesday-to-Thursday, except for new wide releases Hancock (Sony) and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (Picturehouse). The Will Smith superhero movie directed by Peter Berg was down slightly to an esimated $17.1M with a new 2 1/2 cume of $41.23M. The Abigail Breslin G-rated period piece slipped under $1M (about $911,000) for a new cume of about $2.51M. read more
Thursday, July 3
Original 'Hancock' screenplay Hollywood Elsewhere
Wednesday, July 2
Tuesday, July 1
Monday, June 30