We knew it was going to be a battle between Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Hancock this weekend, as they both target the same demographic. Hellboy II came out on top by almost $3 million, earning $35.9 million in its debut at 3,204 venues. The performance was pretty close to what was expected, as trackers finally got one right this summer.
As expected, Hancock plunged, but it held a little better than expected, and was able to garner another $33 million, to grow the total to a little over $165 million overall. It dropped 47.3 percent from last weeks' opener, while coming in second place for the weekend.
Journey to the Center of the Earth with Brendan Fraser, performed pretty well, generating $20.6 million in sales, while opening at about 400 fewer venues than Hellboy II. It was shown at over 1,100 fewer venues than Hancock as well.
Even so, it enjoyed an average of $7,301 per venue; a decent showing. It may have done better if there had been more actual places where 3-D was shown. Only about 33 percent of theaters played it in 3-D.
The last couple weekends fell short of last years' performance, as "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" helped last year significantly outperform this year during the same time period.
We'll have to see if the release of "The Dark Knight" helps the summer box office recover from its two-weekend slowdown.
The top ten for weekend:
| 1 | N | Hellboy II: The Golden Army | $35,885,000 |
| 2 | 1 | Hancock | $33,000,000 |
| 3 | N | Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D | $20,580,000 |
| 4 | 2 | Wall-E | $18,509,000 |
| 5 | 3 | Wanted | $11,586,000 |
| 6 | 4 | Get Smart | $7,105,000 |
| 7 | N | Meet Dave | $5,300,000 |
| 8 | 5 | Kung Fu Panda | $4,300,000 |
| 9 | 8 | Kit Kittredge: An American Girl | $2,357,000 |
| 10 | 7 | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | $2,250,000 |
Other Box Office Sites:
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