Pixar now 9 out of 9 on blockbusters, Jolie /Freeman wanted a hit and got one

By Keith Williams

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 6/29/07 — The ghost of Number 5 rose to do battle this weekend with a female assassin extraordinaire and both registered stellar box-office returns from families and action fans alike. Pixar’s WALL-e scooped up $63 million on opening weekend on earth, while Wanted found everything it was looking for with a $51 million bow for Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy.

Wanted, the debut American feature for Timur Bekmambetov, Russian director of Death Watch and Day Watch – plots so dense you needed a sat nav to figure out where you were – stars Angeline Jolie in the kind of action chick flick her sexy, insolent attitude seems tailor-made for. A snazzy trailer, Morgan Freeman doing what he does best – provide comfort and quality – James McAvoy brilliantly succeeding in doing what Christian Bale did to crack this very same market, plus the bonus of earning itself a badge of honor with its R rating for the under-age audience most likely to enjoy it, resulted in this spectacular, Matrix-like thriller grabbing an estimated 18.7 million Friday on 3175 screens, 51.1 million for the weekend.

Nice to see you’re back: They even let Jolie sport her real tattoos in the film, saving her hours in the makeup room and giving guys an extra treat.

Disney/Pixar in contrast offered Wall–e, the computer-animated tale of a lonely robot clearing up waste on a devastated Earth. Teasers and trailers had been excellent, as had industry buzz, and while the diminutive lead reminds one uneasily of Short Circuit, trust Pixar, the apple of the movie studios, to come up with something more original and emotive. Ratatouille, their last production with the title no-one thought you could sell let alone pronounce opened at $47 million. Prior to that, Cars took $60M, The Incredibles $70M, as did Finding Nemo. Wall-e, on 3992 screens, hoovered up $23.3 million opening day, $62.5 mil three day total.

Elsewhere, Get Smart took $20 million for its second weekend, falling 48.3%, Kung Fu Panda held firm against Wall-e with $11.7 and a 46.5 percent drop, the less-than-Incredible Hulk tumbled down 58.3 percent to $9.2 million, while a 60.9 percent nose-dive left The Love Guru with $5.4 mil. Search parties for The Happening discovered it lurking near the bottom of the top ten with $3.8 green ones from a 63.3 percent drop, the biggest of the weekend top ten.

WEEKEND TOP 5 STUDIO ESTIMATES, JUNE 27-29, 2008

Rank. Movie Title (Distributor) Weekend Gross | Theaters | Total Gross | Week #

1. Wall-E (Buena Vista) $62.5 million | 3,992 | $62.5 million | 1

2. Wanted (Universal) $51.1 million | 3,175 | $51.1 million | 1

3. Get Smart (Warner Bros.) $20.0 million | 3,915 | $77.3 million | 2

4. Kung Fu Panda (Paramount (DW) $11.7 million | 3,670 | $179.3 million | 4

5. The Incredible Hulk (Universal) $9.2 million | 3,349 | $115.5 million | 3

Weekend Estimates courtesy of boxofficemojo.com