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Entries in Wanted (18)

Morgan Freeman Seriously Injured in Car Accident

freemanc.jpgAcademy Award winner Morgan Freeman has reportedly been involved in a serious car accident in Mississippi. One of the stars of this summer's Wanted and The Dark Knight was on the road with an unnamed female passenger outside of Ruleville, Mississippi around 11:30 Sunday night when the one-car accident occurred.

Multiple online reports indicate that Freeman was airlifted to a Memphis hospital, where he is receiving treatment and undergoing evaluation. Though he is listed in serious condition, the 71-year-old actor was talking at the scene of the accident and even joking before he was taken to hospital.

Local newspaper editor Clay McFerrin arrived at the scene soon after it happened and said it appeared that Freeman's car landed in a ditch after leaving the highway.

"They had to use the jaws of life to extract him from the vehicle," McFerrin said. "He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point."

According to McFerrin, as an onlooker tried to snap a photo with a cell phone camera, Freeman joked, "No freebies, no freebies."

Posted on Monday, August 4, 2008 at 10:52AM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , | Comments11 Comments

Box Office - 'Hellboy' Rules Friday, Nobody Wants to 'Meet Dave'

There's good news all around with the Friday box office estimates. We'll begin at the top and work our way down.

It appears that Hellboy II: The Golden Army may be headed towards the $37 - $40 million range this weekend, which a near $14 million Friday, according to Box Office Mojo. That should mean a $100 million run for the Hellboy sequel, maybe upwards of $120 - $130 million depending on how it plays in the next couple of weeks. This number may be a touch higher than projections, although the Saturday numbers will tell us a lot not just about the weekend in particular but well this might play down the line.

Hancock finished in second place on Friday, and should wind up with another $30 million or so after its second weekend, proving Will Smith's new movie isn't just critic proof, but to a large extent, it's audience proof, too. Average to below average reviews may have hurt it a little bit, but Hancock will still be a $225 million movie.

Journey to the Center of the Earth, which is a slightly better show than it lets on, did slightly better on Friday than I would've thought. With nearly $7 million in ticket sales, this film should reach $20 million for the weekend, not bad when you consider the 3-D feature only cost $45 million. Wall-E, Wanted, and Get Smart continue to do nice business. If I had to forecast U.S. totals based on what we've seen so far, I'd say Wall-E - which will have the longest life of the three because of the way it plays to family crowds - will wind up with about $215 million, Wanted will finish in the $130 - $140 million range, and Get Smart might hit $125 million. Wall-E, of course, is the biggest investment, with production costs exceeding Wanted and Get Smart combined, so its bar is set quite a bit higher. Both Wanted and Get Smart have made their money back already, and Wall-E still needs help.

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Posted on Saturday, July 12, 2008 at 10:26AM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , , , , , , | Comments11 Comments

Box Office - 'Hancock' Finishes Strong

I stand corrected, not that I understand it. When we last updated the box office saga of Hancock, we stated that $100 million by Monday was highly unlikely. After all, its Friday audience - after giving crowds three days to see it - was a meager $19 million, only 9% higher than your average old Thursday. That's not good for a Will Smith movie.

Box Office Mojo reports that Hancock's audience jumped up a whopping 40% from Friday to Saturday, giving the movie a huge push to a $107 million week. Of movies with Wednesday openings that made more in their first six days, only The Passion of the Christ took in 40% more on Saturday than Friday, and that had God on its side. So, you can see, it's kind of hard to predict something like that happening. We may have been wrong Saturday, but we were pretty much dead on about the total number when we took our first crack at it; we said then that Will Smith would bring home $108 million so we weren't far off in our original projection. Still can't get over that 40% increase from Friday to Saturday...

In other news we overvalued every other property on the board this week by a few million bucks, with Wall-E, Wanted, and Get Smart coming in a little below our original picks.

Oh, and here's a tragedy: Do you know what the most profitable movie of the summer is so far? What Happens in Vegas, which has amassed nearly seven times its budget, earning $200 million here and abroad. That's sick.

The Top Five:

1 - Hancock ($66 million/$107 million)

2 - Wall-E ($33 million)

3 - Wanted ($20 million)

4 - Get Smart ($11 million)

5 - Kung Fu Panda ($7.5 million)

Posted on Sunday, July 6, 2008 at 10:42AM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , , , | Comments1 Comment

Box Office - 'Hancock' Just a Mere Mortal on Friday

And so the Hancock Express has started to slow down. I figured it would, but I thought it had another big, big day left in the tank. So after throwing more than $40 million on the board after its first two-and-a-half days (Wednesday and Thursday plus the limited Tuesday night shows), Hancock was on pace to move past $100 million by Monday morning.

Not anymore.

Stumbling in a big way Friday, the new Will Smith movie only added $18.8 million on the Fourth of July, according to Box Office Mojo, which significantly hurts its chances to give Smith his ninth consecutive $100 million movie, at least within the first week. Now standing at $60 million, it seems impossible for this movie to make $40 million in days five and six of its release. Or days four and five if you don't count Tuesday. The point is, however, that this still should have made $20 million on Friday despite the millions of people who had already seen it.

It seems highly unlikely that we'll see a spike on Saturday, although it's possible that Hancock could make upwards of $23 million today. That's the only chance it has to become a $100 million earner before the end of the weekend. More than likely, though, our Thursday box office forecast just missed the downturn by a day. I said then that most everyone who was really eager to see it will have done so by Saturday, but now it looks like they have done it by Friday.

Still, $93 million isn't too shabby for a week, and that's probably the low end of Hancock's potential the rest of the way. Maybe it gets to $97 million, but the precious $100 million seems like a stretch.

Elsewhere, Wanted has already made its money back, eclipsing $75 million in seven days, and Wall-E has cleared $100 million, although its budget was $180 million, so there's still a lot of work to be done there. Like Hancock, Get Smart will have to wait until next week to blow out 100 million candles on the cake; the spy comedy sits $11 million away after a $3 million Friday. Kung Fu Panda is likely another weekend-plus away from $200 million.

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Posted on Saturday, July 5, 2008 at 12:39PM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , , | Comments1 Comment

Fearless Forecast - 'Hancock,' Will Smith Will Own The Fourth of July

Will Smith's box office power is well documented: His last eight movies have earned over $100 million each, and his last three - I Am Legend, The Pursuit of Happyness, and Hitch - have earned $1.25 billion worldwide. Right now, he's hotter than ever...and he has the whole weekend to himself.

Of course, Hancock was originally supposed to open on Wednesday, but they pushed back the release date within the past few days to allow for paid sneaks on Tuesday night. So...as of right now, Hancock has already made $24 million and change. That's not a bad number, but I don't get the move from an unopposed Friday to Tuesday night in the first place. All the move does is reward people who were really paying attention. Most people wouldn't go to a new movie on Tuesday anyway, because they're just not trained to. It's a weekend sport.

So now the question becomes how much will Hancock make not over three days but over...uh...hang on...5.3 days. The math gets a little fuzzy because he won't have a completely massive Friday, the kind we'd expect from a Will Smith summer movie. And at the end of the protracted weekend, the total number will reflect all of the box office and not just the Friday - Sunday numbers.

We'll assume Hancock will make about another $15 million today, bringing its pre-weekend total to about $40 million. Lock that number away until later. Ordinarily, I'd say this movie could make about $80 million in its debut weekend, but that number becomes harder to accept knowing that the real diehards will have seen it before Saturday. So, I'm betting that we'll see about a $27 million Friday, a $24 million Saturday, and a $17 million Sunday. Add that up and you, friend, have $68 million.

Remember that $40 million from earlier? Now Big Willie Style has made $108 million in six days. Not bad. No records, certainly, but it extends his streak of $100 million movies in less than a week.

The Top Five:

1 - Hancock ($68 million)

2 - Wall-E ($36 million)

3 - Wanted ($24 million)

4 - Get Smart ($12 million)

5 - Kit Kittredge ($9 million)

Posted on Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 01:15PM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , , | Comments3 Comments
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