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The
story of a struggling dad who becomes homeless along
with his young son, ``Pursuit of Happyness'' joins a
long line of No. 1 openings for Smith, including the
action tales ``Independence Day'' and ``I, Robot.''
``Audiences
around the world love him,'' said Rory Bruer, head of
distribution at Sony, whose past hits with Smith include
the ``Men in Black'' flicks and last year's romantic
comedy ``Hitch.''
``Everyone
who sees Will Smith or meets Will Smith feels like he
could be their best friend,'' Bruer said. ``He has that
type of charisma that resonates throughout whatever
room he's in.''
Combining
live action and computer animation, ``Charlotte's Web''
had a soft opening despite an all-star voice cast including
Julia Roberts, Robert Redford and Oprah Winfrey in E.B.
White's classic about a spider that befriends a lonely
pig.
Don
Harris, executive vice president of distribution at
Paramount, said the studio hopes ``Charlotte's Web''
will follow the pattern of other pre-Christmas family
releases such as ``Stuart Little'' and ``The Prince
of Egypt,'' which opened in the same range but held
on through the holidays to become hits.
``The
movie has every chance to get to $100 million off of
this opening,'' Harris said.
Paramount's
musical ``Dreamgirls,'' starring Jamie Foxx, Beyonce
Knowles, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson in an adaptation
of the stage hit, opened to big numbers at three theaters
in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Premiering
with reserved seating and special programs at a premium
ticket price of $25, the film took in $360,000, a healthy
start to its nationwide release on Christmas.
George
Clooney and Steven Soderbergh's latest collaboration,
``The Good German,'' debuted solidly with $78,572 at
five theaters. Clooney stars with Cate Blanchett and
Tobey Maguire in a black-and-white tale of murder and
intrigue in Berlin just after World War II.
Overall
business was off, with the top 12 movies taking in $112.3
million, down 8.3 percent compared to the same weekend
last year, when two blockbusters _ ``King Kong'' and
``The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and
the Wardrobe'' _ were Nos. 1 and 2.
This
weekend's holdover films retained strong audiences,
though, a sign that many current movies may have a long
shelf life, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office
tracker Media By Numbers.
``It's
hard to say this is a positive thing that this is a
down weekend. But the strength of this weekend has been
the holdovers,''
Dergarabedian said. ``There is a lot of depth to the
marketplace.
It's a direct reflection of audience satisfaction. That's
more important I think than beating last year's competition.''
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