2008 July 06 « Entertainment Today and Beyond

The Holiday Box Office for Hancock – Hellboy 2 coming up

Hancock vs the Whale

Despite weak reviews (33% positive on Rottentomatoes.com), it appears that Sony will get a 66 million dollar weekend out of its summer tent pole film HANCOCK, with 107.3 mill total since the film hit theaters Monday night. While it’s not the 155 mill that last years TRANSFORMERS did in the same time period, they have to be happy with it. Clearly the studio would like this Will Smith vehicle to become a long running franchise. I say that’s an iffy prospect at this point. While I don’t think word of mouth will necessarily be bad, the film’s third act is so off-course that it won’t be overly positive either. It should be interesting to see how well it holds up next weekend.

The Hellboy Team

I think next weeks opening of Universal’s HELLBOY 2 THE GOLDEN ARMY will be an interesting one indeed. While comic book super heroes continue to be the current craze of the day, Hellboy just doesn’t have the appeal of a Spiderman or Iron Man to America’s youth and I think it’s fair to put the character into the category of cult status. With a budget of 85 mil I think the studio would be happy to get an opening weekend in the 30 million range. The first Hellboy did a combined 59.6 mill domestically with a relatively weak 39.7 overseas – that on a production budget of 66 mill. The really good reviews for Hellboy 2 can only help.

July 6, 2008 Posted by Entertainment Today & Beyond | Reviews | Leave a Comment