Hancock Has Strong Opening
July 3, 2008 by brian
Image details: Premiere Of Sony Pictures’ "Hancock" – Arrivals served by picapp.com
Will Smith has continued being critic proof as his latest effort Hancock pulled down nearly $7 million in limited opening July 1, according to Variety. Yesterday it expanded from 3,680 screens to 3,965.
Critics haven’t been kind to the comedy about an alcoholic, surly superhero who tries to rehab his image. But it’s the July 4 weekend, the movie’s got Will and some slam-bang action. It will certainly open at no.1 and we’ll see how it holds off remaining summer blockbusters like The Dark Knight and Hellboy II.
In an interesting move, Sony has completely switched up the type of trailers it’s been showing. All summer they’ve focused on comedic aspects of the film like tossing a whale into the ocean, tossing smart-ass kids into the air and a lot of tossing things around in general. But most recently the commercials have talked about the dramatic parts of the movie like Hancock becoming mortal and Charlize Theron’s character knowing why. Perhaps in response to some negative fan reaction in screenings? Who knows, Hollywood can be so reactionary sometimes.
Strong opening for a strong summer box office star. As Brian himself has put it, you can’t have a July 4th w/o a Will Smith movie. We saw it last night–it was good and nicely interlaced w/funny action scenes.
What made it stand out was the interesting take on what makes hero…super; When the superhero is powerful or powerless. He also manages to give social commentary on spandex costumes. Then later, the reason hero’s wear uniforms is defined thru Bateman’s char.
What really stood out was Charlize Theron was in it & her role in the story. It was a surprise because the trailers I saw never showed Charlize.
Overall, it gets a: B-.
–Godspeed–
I will probably check it out tomorrow.