Photo: Getty Images, AFP
As anyone can tell you, Will Smith is in the undisputed champion of the July 4 weekend box office; so powerful is his Independence Day–related appeal that Columbia Pictures apparently felt safe green-lighting a $150 million Smith-toplined dark comedy about an alcoholic superhero on the condition that it would be released July 2, when it will inevitably make millions upon millions of dollars for reasons that no one quite understands. But next Wednesday, Smith's Hancock will face some unlikely competition when America's small women descend on Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery, opening in wide release that day and, coincidentally, starring his 8-year-old daughter, Willow.
Hilariously, Willow is proving to be something of a trash-talker. "He thinks he is going to beat me," she said an interview last week. "But I think not. I think I am going to beat him." Last night on Letterman, Smith responded: "Daddy loves you, sweetie, but I gots to stomp you at the box office." Who will win? We'd probably root for Willow if we didn't think a Kit Kittredge victory might actually tear her family apart.
Why Hollywood Is Such A Homewrecker... [Deadline Hollywood Daily]
Earlier: Hollywood: ‘Wait, There Are Women Who Are Children, Too?’
