HANCOCK HAS SUPER DEBUT

Sony's Hancock showed the strength of a superhero in its debut on Tuesday, grossing $6.8 million during two screenings in 3,680 theaters. (It adds 280 more this weekend.) While the preview screenings took in more than an earlier superhero movie, Iron Man, in May ($5.5 million), it fell well below last year's previews of Transformers ($8.8 million), which set the stage for a Fourth of July holiday haul of $155.4 million. Box-office forecasters are predicting that Hancock should wind up with $100-120 million through Sunday. However, many analysts are waiting to see how word-of-mouth will affect the film. Reviews of the film were mostly negative, and if audiences react the way the critics did, ticket sales could drop by Sunday. Meanwhile, Disney-Pixar's WALL-E continued to pick up steam, actually earning more than Hancock on Tuesday ($7.6 million), and although it played throughout the day, a large percentage of its tickets were sold at discounted children's prices.

03/07/2008