娱乐英语新闻："Hancock" sparks box office fireworks over Independence Day weekend

LOS ANGELES, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Sony Pictures' superhero movie "Hancock" sparked the box office fireworks over this Independence Day weekend in the United States, breaking the 100-million-dollar sale mark in its first week of release, preliminary figures released Sunday showed.

    The Will Smith action film about a down-on-his-luck superhero, opened on Tuesday before the Fourth of July holiday, will take in estimated 107.3 million dollars in North America by the close of business Sunday night, according to box office tracking firm Media By Numbers.

    Meanwhile, "Hancock" easily bested Disney-Pixar animation feature "Wall-E" for the weekend-only crown, taking in about 66 million dollars over the three-day period.

Cast members Will Smith (L), Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman (R) pose at the movie premiere of "Hancock" at Grauman's Chinese theatre in Hollywood, California June 30, 2008. The movie opens in the U.S. on July 2

    Last week's box office leader "Wall-E" is expected to sell impressive 33.4 million dollars this weekend, bringing a two-week total of 128.1 million dollars for the animated robot romance.

    Universal's action thriller "Wanted" from Universal was in third place this weekend with estimated 20.6 million dollars in ticket sales, followed by Warner Bros' spy action "Get Smart" and Dream Work Animation's "Kung Fu Panda" with 11.1 million and 7.5 million dollars respectively.

    The weekend also saw teen movie adaptation of "An American Girl" book, "Kit Kittredge: All American Girl," sneak in the back door of the top ten. The film starring popular child actress Abigail Breslin was in eighth place with 3.6 million dollars.

    Hollywood's overall business slipped for the first time in a month, as the top-selling 12 films took in 158.5 million dollars collectively, down 4 percent from the same period last year, when Dream Work's "Transformers" opened.