Happy Independence Day to everyone! Over the last decade, there have been some interesting Fourth of July weekends at the box office. Here are some highlights:
2009 – “Transformers 2” and “Ice Age 3” tie in early estimates. “T2” wins in actuals.
2008 – Will Smith (the King of 4th of July movies) wins with “Hancock”.
2007 – The original “Transformers” crushes competition.
2006 – “Superman Returns” pulls in $76M over the 5-day weekend. The last day of the 5 day was the actual holiday.
2005 – Tom Cruise wins with (as of now) his final blockbuster, “War of the Worlds”.
2004 – “Spider-Man 2” makes $88M in the same three day weekend as this year (July 2-4). It’s the biggest 4th of July opening ever.
2003 – “Terminator 3” does about the same in it’s 3-day weekend as “Terminator Salvation” did last May, $44M.
2002 – Will Smith’s sequel “Men In Black II” makes $87M in first five days.
2001 – “Cats and Dogs” opens with $35M over 5-day weekend. I wonder what the sequel will open with later this month. Some early predictions have it around $23M.
2000 – “The Perfect Storm” has a perfect opening, $41M, beating “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle”.
“The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” will definitely win the 2010 4th of July box office. Right now, it could be a $170M five day opening ($78M Fri-Sun). Have a great holiday and go see a movie!