All my box office gurus think Hancock will be massive. So they're predicting a floor of $100M all the way up to $115M over the 5-day holiday since the Sony pic is starring Mr Independence Day Weekend, Will Smith. Let the prognosticating begin... Meanwhile, Sony is rolling out its long awaited and much rumored new multi-platform video service this summer in the U.S. and will offer Hancock to owners of internet-connected Bravia TVs before the movie is available on DVD.
Good marketing and concept will make this massive, but after reading a couple of reviews I’ve lowered my expectations of it waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down. Sounds like it doesn’t pull the concept off.
Comment by Michael Dobrofsky — June 26, 2008 @ 10:19 pm
cha-ching!!!
Comment by The Fresh Prince — June 26, 2008 @ 10:26 pm
I think the gurus are off on this one. Hancock will do business but it certainly won’t be “massive.” It’ll be a blip on the summer movie radar screen between Wall-E and Dark Knight, which I think are the two biggest movies of the year right there — and from what I’m hearing, both are great. Not so great is the buzz on Hancock, which won’t kill the movie but it ain’t helpin’ either. In the ads, the movie has a problem: is it a “kid’s movie for adults” or an “adult movie for kids”? It’s the same problem “Last Action Hero” had oh-so long ago so I’ll sum up by saying Hancock is no golden ticket.
Comment by Ben — June 26, 2008 @ 10:31 pm
It’s hard to bet against Will Smith. No one can currently open a movie better than him.
Comment by Harold — June 26, 2008 @ 10:47 pm
The story WON’T BE Hancock. The STORY will be WALL E, WANTED, BATMAN, KID KITTREDGE, HELLBOY 2, maybe even MAMAMIA (though I’m not sure). But NOT Hancock. It doesn’t know what it wants to be. WANTED will take it’s steam up front, and DARK KNIGHT will take it’s steam in the back, and Mr. Independence Day will have to settle for fireworks without much spark.
Hey Will - next time better script, better director. Same to you genius’ at SONY.
Comment by aaron — June 26, 2008 @ 10:49 pm
Sure Hancock will be huge,but i’m more interested in what
Wall-e does,because that could be Pixar’s highest grossing film as of yet.
Comment by Dennis — June 26, 2008 @ 10:55 pm
Well, it is July 4th weekend and the movie’s another comic book retread, and it does have Will Smith, so yeah, that sounds about right. But on July 4th weekend, you could show film of my gallbladder surgery and make at least 70.
Comment by peggy — June 26, 2008 @ 11:04 pm
Of course it will be big, maybe even huge, but i doubt it’ll end at the top 3 box office hits this summer. Maybe not even top 5. Early reviews are not good and there’s a lot of competition going on over the next few weeks. I like Will Smith, but i wish he would leave his Independence Day/Men In Black period behind him already.
Comment by Ben — June 27, 2008 @ 12:05 am
Here is what I am predicting, $90 million tops. It might not even get to $90 million the way the buzz is going.
Unless somebody decides to raise the ticket price a bit, as seen in the following sketch:
PATRON: One ticket for Hancock please?
TICKET TAKER: That would be 90 million dollars.
Comment by Jessy S. — June 27, 2008 @ 12:47 am
Hey Ben and Aaron. Hancock will be massive. MASSIVE. It’s a fun movie. That’s all. Popcorn flick. It’s not going to change your life (well, I hope not) or the world. By the way Ben, Will Smith should be nominated for an Oscar, when Seven Pounds comes out. Great script, great director, great movie. Write it down. SEVEN POUNDS. December 08.
Saw Wall-E, what a great movie. Best Pixar film yet.
Comment by Phil Dale Duckie — June 27, 2008 @ 12:55 am
Saw “Hancock” Thursday night. It’s funny, charming, lots of spectacle and wreckage. Audience was vocal and really enjoyed it. Takes a very strange turn late in the second act, which seemed to confuse (and quiet) the audience… But it wasn’t strange enough to derail the whole picture… Audience got back on-board for the third act and everybody had a good time.
The pic does push it’s luck with language. Let’s just say the Hancock character believes in speaking frankly to children.
Comment by Notorious BLT — June 27, 2008 @ 1:36 am
Saw HANCOCK and this is going to be the test: can Will Smith beat the critics? I wanted a fun, brainless Will Smith action-comedy (loved MIB). Instead, got a boring, boring, boring, shoddy movie that just wasn’t very good.
Comment by Greg — June 27, 2008 @ 5:09 am
Funny..the same comments I heard about ‘Am I Legend’ that it’s a dud and will be a dud at the B.O. That its the worst of Will, and that it was boring..blah blah blah. Ka Ching..580M globally.
Oh! When ‘Pursuit of Happyness’ opened less than 30M, industry talks was that it was a dud cause the opening was below his normal opening average. It went to gross over 163M domestic and 300M globally.
I can go on you know but I am sure you get the point by now.
But I kind of do thing that Will is over-exposed. 2 movies within a year is a bit of an overkill.
Comment by Armand — June 27, 2008 @ 5:59 am
Peggy: Hancock isn’t ‘a comic book retread.’ It’s not based on a pre-existing property. It’s an original script. Nice try, though.
Comment by Can't Take it Anymore — June 27, 2008 @ 6:07 am
The difference was that PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS was a good movie for the most part. HANCOCK is really bad. Just unsatisfying on every level. I was at that “vocal” Thursday night screening and I have to remind the commenter that free screenings are always vocal. Everyone just got a free movie!
Comment by Greg — June 27, 2008 @ 6:44 am
Week number 2 of Wall-E. Enough said.
Comment by Paul — June 27, 2008 @ 7:22 am
Sure, Hancock will OPEN huge. I could see it doing 100 or even more, especially over five days. They have nothing to worry about with the opening.
The big question is how it will hold up. I could see this opening with 100 or more but struggling to 200. It will get talked about for the first week for the big opening, the second week for the big drop, then forgotten by the end of the summer - I could see this not even being top 5 for the summer regardless of how big the opening is.
Comment by milo — June 27, 2008 @ 10:37 am
Just a reminder to Greg: The audience is a wild, Jungian animal. At the midway point of ANY screening, the collective audience could care less if they paid or not. All the collective “they” knows is whether they are enjoying the experience or not.
I once saw a free screening of Shyamalan’s “THE VILLAGE” and at the end of the second act, the crowd was ready to burn down the theater.
As I mentioned, the “HANCOCK” audience was thrown by a strange turn, but their interest rebounded for the third act. The “strange turn” was unnecessary (and yeah, the third act is awkward), but not enough to damage the movie’s prospects.
Comment by Notorious BLT — June 27, 2008 @ 2:37 pm
Can’t take it anymore: If it walks like a duck, squawks like a duck and swims in water and has a beak, it’s a duck. If a character has super powers and flies through the air like superman, it’s a comic book retread. Whether based on an existing comic book or not. Perhaps you’d prefer “comic book like” or “comicbookness”.
Comment by peggy — June 28, 2008 @ 11:29 pm
Yes Will is a huge draw. The film however is not good. It gets remotely interesting when Charlize throws a plot twist. Unfortunately, any redeeming qualities of the film are diminished by the several jokes at the expensive of gays (read: homophobia).
Comment by lagrk — June 30, 2008 @ 9:36 am
By the end of month HANCOCK will probably be at the bottom of the top ten of Summer’s box office. I saw it yesterday(7/3)and found it somewhat flat. I wonder if maybe I am already tired of superheros this season. DARK KNIGHT and HELLBOY2 will draw in more earnings than HANCOCK. IRONMAN is still in the lead as this summer’s big hit with INDIANA JONES closing in.
Comment by Bruce Evans — July 4, 2008 @ 10:09 am
I get it.
People who don’t get it won’t care.
People will want to see just how bad it is and watch it anyway.
Will Smith is just plain fun to watch.
Comment by cecilia — July 5, 2008 @ 6:27 pm