Will power rules box office roost as “I Am Legend” scores $76.5 million

By Jeffrey Jolson

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 12/16/07 – Will Smith is alone, not just in his latest film, “I Am Legend,” but as the only star who can consistently open huge films. Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and others have been uneven, yet Smith remains Hollywood’s only true Golden Boy.

“Legend,” which scored a whopping $76.5 million in its first weekend at the box office, will pass the $100 million mark within a week, the seventh Will Smith film in a row to do so. His big hits like “I’ Robot’ and the MIB films open with $50 million-plus weekends, and even his soft films like “Pursuit of Happyness” bow over $25 million. Consider the following Will Smith openings:

I Am Legend opened with $76.5, I, Robot did $52.17M, Men in Black II at $52.14M, Men in Black did $51M, Independence Day at $50.2M, Shark Tale bowed with $47.6M, Bad Boys II did $46.5M, Hitch at $43.1M, Wild, Wild West with $27.6M and last but not least The Pursuit of Happyness – $26.5M, according to Fantasy Moguls site.

The other hit of the weekend were the hipster critters in “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” which took in $45 million in its opening weekend, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

After topping last week’s box office with $25.8 million, “The Golden Compass,” a fantasy film that had been expected to rake in blockbuster figures, fell to third place with just over nine million dollars despite good reviews.

The reported 180-million-dollar film, starring Nicole Kidman and James Bond actor Daniel Craig, took 25.8 million dollars, has been criticized by Christian groups as being anti-religious.

The Disney fairytale “Enchanted” dropped from second to fourth place with six million dollars, while the latest Coen brothers movie, “No Country for Old Men,” rose one spot to fifth place with three million.

Three Christmas-themed movies took the next three spots: “The Perfect Holiday” with nearly three million dollars, “Fred Claus” with just over 2.3 billion dollars, “This Christmas” with 2.3 million dollars.

The World War II drama “Atonement” jumped six spots to ninth place with nearly 1.9 million dollars after earning seven Golden Globe nominations on Thursday, making the film an Oscar contender.

Rounding up the top 12 films of weekend were “August Rush” with 1.8 million dollars, “Juno” with 1.4 million and “Beowulf” with 1.35 million.

AFP contributed to this report