WILL SMITH - DON'T UNDERESTIMATE WILL

DON'T UNDERESTIMATE WILL

It turns out that even the weekend studio estimate for Will Smith's I Am Legend was too low. Official figures released Monday indicated that the post-apocalypse movie earned $77.2 million, not the $76.5 million that had astonished box-office analysts when the estimate was released Sunday. Entertainment writers found it hard to believe that the film, in which Smith delivers virtually a solo performance, outperformed the "cast of thousands" Lord of the Rings films which had previously set December box-office records. Almost as surprising was the $44.3 million taken in by the kids movie Alvin and the Chipmunks, which received nearly universally bad reviews. On the other hand, New Line's The Golden Compass continued to travel south. The $200-million movie earned just $8.8 million in its second week. The figure amounted to twice what most analysts had forecast.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Media by Numbers (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):
1. I Am Legend, Warner Bros., $77,211,321, 1 Wks, (New); 2. Alvin and the Chipmunks, Fox, $44,307,417, (New); 3. The Golden Compass, New Line, $8,8255,49, 2 Wks. ($40,768,661); 4. Enchanted, Disney, $5,533,884, 4 Wks. ($91,801,187); 5. No Country for Old Men, Miramax, $2,827,530, 6 Wks. ($33,390,003); 6. The Perfect Holiday, Yari Film Group, $2,283,360, (New); 7. This Christmas, Sony Screen Gems, $2,260,812, 4 Wks. ($46,004,292); 8. Fred Claus, Warner Bros., $2,22,1438, 6 Wks. ($68,880,722); 9. Atonement, Focus, $1,806,862, 2 Wks. ($2,918,154); 10. August Rush, Warner Bros., $1,765,319, 4 Wks. ($28,045,110).

18/12/2007