In a surprising upset, it was Hellboy II: The Golden Army that took the top spot on this weekend's box office chart. With an opening of $35.8 million, which was $12 million better than the first film's debut weekend take, Big Red managed to best Hancock. Will Smith's superhero flick was expected to take top honors, but instead only earned $33 million in second place for its second week of release. Don't cry too hard for Peter Berg's action comedy, though. Since opening on July 1st, the film has raked in an amazing $165 million dollars. Battlefield Earth's entire box office earnings were only $20 million, so you can pretty much count Hancock a blockbuster.
This week's other two major releases didn't fare quite as well as Guillermo Del Toro's sequel. The Brendan Frazer 3D family adventure Journey to the Center of the Earth barely squeaked into third place, right above WALL-E, with a nice fall take of $20.5 million. Too bad it's summer, some people might have considered this one a hit. But it's poor Eddie Murphy that took the biggest fall. His latest comedy Meet Dave cracked at number seven with just $5.3 million, making it one of the biggest bombs of recent months. No wonder Murphy has publicly started talking about retiring. Sad thing is, I hear the film isn't half bad. Maybe it will find a second life on home video.
You will see the box office numbers of both Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Hancock fall dramatically next weekend as the biggest film of the summer hits, and it is called The Dark Knight. No one will be able to beat this bad boy for some time to come, so get ready to say hello to it for the next couple of weeks, as it will surely be residing in that top position at least until August.
