Filmgoers Wild For 'Wall-E' And 'Wanted': Angelina...

Sources tell me that very early North American box office numbers show that Disney / Pixar's Wall-E took in $23.1M Friday from 3,992 theaters for what should be a $67M opening weekend. This means arty Wall-E is big, but whether it becomes the biggest Pixar (which was The Incredibles at $70.5M) depends on how packed Saturday and Sunday kiddie matinees turned out to be and whether the computer-generated toon attracts curious adults. Disney is looking for a Best Picture Oscar nomination, very possible with 97% great reviews from top critics and even rival studio bigwigs gushing: "It's just adorable and smart and interesting. It has more character development and emotion than any movie I've seen this year." One wrinkle in Wall-E's marketing was that the 1 hour, 37 minute pic has no dialogue for the first 40 or so minutes. And it can be hard to market a character that doesn't talk.
In the No. 2 place, Universal's Angelina Jolie/James McAvoy starrer Wanted debuted to $18.5M Friday from 3,175 venues for a $52.7 weekend. That's way more than the $35+M which the studio expected from this stylish summer actioner. It turned out to be the best June opening ever for an R-rated movie, beating Knocked Up's $30.6M. And it's the 6th highest R-rated opening of all time (behind The Matrix Reloaded, The Passion Of The Christ, 300, Hannibal, and Sex And The City). It's also the biggest opening for an Angelina Jolie movie ever because women want to see it as almost as much as men, young and old are coming in nearly even, and relative newcomer McAvoy is almost as much of a draw for the film as veteran Jolie.