The Dark Knight Breaks Opening Weekend Record!

Warner Bros. Pictures' The Dark Knight has earned $155.34 million to top Spider-Man 3 for best opening weekend at the box office. The weekend estimates show Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins follow-up more than $4 million ahead of the $151.1 million first weekend for Spider-Man 3 in May of 2007. The Dark Knight has also broken Spider-Man 3's record ($4.7 million) for best debut in IMAX theaters with $6.2 million in 94 locations. Budgeted at $180 million, the film opened in a record 4,366 theaters nationwide and broke the new single and opening day records on Friday with $67.85 million. Spider-Man 3 previously held those records with $59.8 million. Internationally, The Dark Knight added $40 million in 20 countries where it began opening Wednesday. The Dark Knight stars Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman.

Debuting in second place, Universal Pictures' Mamma Mia! earned $27.6 million from 2,976 theaters, for an average of $9,275. Starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters, Dominic Cooper, Amanda Seyfried and Christine Baranski, the adaptation of the ABBA musical was made for $52 million.

In third place, Will Smith's Hancock added $14 million its third weekend to push its total to $191.5 million. Co-starring Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman and Eddie Marsan, the Columbia Pictures release cost about $150 million to make.

Fourth place belonged to the Warner Bros./New Line family adventure Journey to the Center of the Earth, which dropped a decent 43.3% in ticket sales, earning $11.9 million in its second weekend. Produced for $60 million, the Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson and Anita Briem-starrer is up to $43.1 million.

Rounding out the top five, Universal's Hellboy II: The Golden Army lost a disturbing 70.9% of its first weekend sales, making $10 million. Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, the sequel has earned $56.4 million compared to its budget of $85 million.

Disney/Pixar's WALL•E took in $9.8 million in its fourth weekend and has collected $182.5 million to date. The Andrew Stanton film was made for about $180 million.

Newcomer Space Chimps opened in the seventh spot with $7.4 million from 2,511 theaters. Fox's animated film averaged $2,927 per theater.

Universal's Wanted and Warner Bros.' Get Smart placed eighth and ninth, making $5.1 million and $4.1 million, respectively. The former has earned $123.3 million and the latter $119.6 million.

Hollywood set an overall revenue record of $253 million for a three-day weekend, beating the $218.4 million haul over the weekend of July 7, 2006.

Source: ComingSoon.net

'Hellboy' tops 'Hancock' at box office

It was boom or bust at the Friday box office.

Universal's "Hellboy II: The Golden Army", directed by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, grossed an estimated $13.8 million from 3,204 runs on Friday to win the day on the strength of males and an aggressive marketing campaign.

The critically acclaimed “Golden Army,” which should win the weekend and open north of $30 million, outpaced the $8.6 million earned by del Toro’s 2004 “Hellboy” on its first Friday.

At the other end of the spectrum, Eddie Murphy’s family comedy “Meet Dave” couldn’t rally much interest at all, grossing an estimated $1.7 million from 3,011 runs for New Regency and 20th Century Fox. It’s the worst debut for a Murphy pic since the ill-fated “Adventures of Pluto Nash,” which grossed $727,870 on its opening day in 2002. “Meet Dave” placed No. 7 on Friday.

The weekend’s third new wide release, New Line and Walden Media’s family action-adventure “Journey to the Center of the Earth” in 3-D did a pleasant $6.7 million from 2,390 screens, of which 854 are digital 3-D screens. “Journey,” released by Warner Bros.,placed No. 3 for the day behind “Hellboy” and Sony holdover “Hancock.”

Interestingly, both “Hellboy” and “Meet Dave” received the same CinemaScore—a B. “Journey” did better, earning an A-.

Will Smith tentpole “Hancock” declined just 44% in its second Friday to an estimated $10.4 million from 3,965 runs for a cume of roughly $142.4 million.

Disney-Pixar’s “Wall-E” continued to play well, grossing an estimated $5.6 million on Friday for a cume of nearly $150 million, or $149.9 million.

New Hancock Clip Revealed

Smith appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and showed this new Hancock clip that gives away a spoiler about his character in the film, opening in theaters on July 2nd.

Will Smith's Hancock Doing Late Reshoots UPDATED

Apparently Hancock was doing very late reshoots in New York City yesterday, most likely as a result of the ratings troubles they've encountered that were detailed in this chat with director Peter Berg. Good news? Bad news? Neither really, but definitely interesting and worth noting. I think my interest in Hancock is definitely starting to increase the more I hear about it.

The photo below, taken yesterday, shows Will Smith in his leather superhero outfit that appears at the end of the most recent trailer. The report sent to Peter says that Times Square was packed with extras wearing 1980's-style brightly colored clothes. They shot for 12 hours total in order to get the updated footage that they needed. Principal photography actually finished last November and Peter Berg has been working on editing and the visual effects since then.

In a article by FirstShowing published last week, Peter Berg had mentioned that the film "remained surprisingly sexual, violent and true in spirit to an original script," which had caused it to receive an R-rating twice from the MPAA. My guess is they hit a wall with the ratings board and had to go back and do reshoots in order to fix the issues. They can only edit, trim, and resubmit so many times before they realize the footage they have is R-rated no matter what.

If anything, this could be looked upon as a good thing. Instead of using the Fox method of crafty editing and audio dubbing, they just opted to reshoot it all from scratch. But then again, I could be missing the entire boat with my speculation and it could be a very bad thing. To be honest, I'm going to hold out and still hope for the best with Hancock. Although I hated it initially, I've flip-flopped entirely and now I'm hoping its great - especially with the more darker, violent side that Berg mentioned included.

UPDATES:

Somebody on YouTube uploaded a video with part of the shooting on New York and our friend Varekai from IMDB sent us the link:

Hancock is directed by Peter Berg, of The Rundown, Friday Night Lights, and The KingdomHancock arrives in theaters on July 2nd previously. The film's script was written by over five different writers, including John August, Vince Gilligan, Akiva Goldsman, Vincent Ngo, and Peter Berg. this summer - Will Smith's own 4th of July weekend spot.

Source: SlashFilm

Hancock Trailer 2#

Columbia Pictures has revealed the full new trailer for Will Smith's superhero action-comedy Hancock, opening in theaters on July 2. Directed by Peter Berg, the film co-stars Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman.

Edgy, conflicted, sarcastic, and misunderstood, Hancock's well-intentioned heroics might get the job done and save countless lives, but always seem to leave jaw-dropping damage in their wake. The public has finally had enough – as grateful as they are to have their local hero, the good citizens of Los Angeles are wondering what they ever did to deserve this guy. Hancock isn't the kind of man who cares what other people think – until the day that he saves the life of PR executive Ray Embrey (Bateman), and the sardonic superhero begins to realize that he may have a vulnerable side after all. Facing that will be Hancock's greatest challenge yet – and a task that may prove impossible as Ray's wife, Mary (Theron), insists that he's a lost cause.

You can watch the trailer in High Definition QuickTime and Flash here!

The official site has been updated as well with a new look, photos, downloads and more.

New Hancock Trailer - Actually Looks Good?

Hancock Trailer

I hope you remember the first Hancock teaser trailer? An extended trailer for Hancock debuted last night on American Idol and has showed up online for our viewing pleasure. Whether you're enjoying the trailers for this or not, you better accept what it is - it's the only movie opening this July 4th so far (no Transformers this year). Anyway, now for my own take on this new Will Smith superhero comedy or parody or whatever you want to call it. This time with this trailer - I'm honestly actually a bit intrigued. I still hate the ridiculously bad wire work and stupid lines, but I'll be damned, could this movie be good?! No, no, I can't get ahead of myself…

Don't get me wrong, I still am not looking forward to this, but maybe, just maybe, this could actually turn out good. I think my biggest problem is that it's in the 4th of July spot - one that should be reserved for exciting blockbusters like Transformers and Independence Day, not this awful superhero parody. I hope I'm wrong but so far I'm still not sold - this isn't going to be an exciting 4th of July.

Watch the new trailer for Hancock:


Hancock is directed by Peter Berg, of The Rundown, Friday Night Lights, and The Kingdom previously. The film's script was written by over five different writers, including John August, Vince Gilligan, Akiva Goldsman, Vincent Ngo, and Peter Berg. Hancock arrives in theaters on July 2nd this summer - Will Smith's own 4th of July weekend spot. The teaser poster is featured below.

Hancock Poster