It pains me to report this, but Hancock did a lot better yesterday than anyone was expecting — $18.8 million — and is now looking at $67 million for the weekend and $109 million cume for the five-and-a-half day July 4th holiday. It’s still not a major wowser — if Hancock was an earthquake-level hit it would be looking at a five-day haul of at least $120 or $130 million — but the $109 million cume means, as my numbers guy said this morning, “they got out alive.”
Dammit. I wanted to see Will Smith, Akiva Goldsman and Peter Berg punished (i.e., by seeing Hancock come up short in terms of expectations) for creating one of the all-time worst third acts in motion picture history.
Yesterday’s reporting about Thursday’s figures being flat encouraged me to think, “Okay, people are actually saying no to a bad film…the ticket-buying public is showing a little judgment here!” Not true, it turns out. Smith is such a big star that people will pay to see anything he’s starring in, including a film that sends you out staggering and gagging. They’re going for those first two acts, I suppose.
Who am I to talk, right? I paid to see it last Tuesday night.