Box Office News: Wall-E Feels Wanted

Studio execs can rest easy in Hollywood this week as a bumper weekend should see their jobs safe until their next flop.

1. WALL-E, $62.5M
2. Wanted, $51.1M
3. Get Smart, $20M
4. Kung Fu Panda, $11.7M
5. Incredible Hulk, $9.2M

As you can see Wall-E opened at number one and is the 3rd biggest opening of Pixar movie ever. Considering that Pixar are consistently big hitters and always open big, this in particularly impressive, if not hugely surprising.

Perhaps the performance of Wanted will prompt the most back-slapping among the studio execs. For a new franchise, based on a graphic novel that isn't a hugely hot property, with an unproven male lead (in box office terms) and the always unpredictable Angelina Jolie, $50 million dollars is a massive opening and now stands as the 7th largest R-Rated opening ever and the top rated June opening for and R-Rated movie, ever.

Angelina may be a bona-fide star and her public profile is all-pervasive but she hasn't really proven her box-office chops. Her big hits (that's hits people, not another word beginning with 'T') have been Tomb Raider and Mr & Mrs Smith and both of these have added selling points. With McAvoy not being a big draw, it's certainly possible to argue that she is the star that opened this movie with such big numbers. So kudos to her. In tribute: