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In Your Face, Willow: Will Smith Crushes 7-Year-Old Daughter at Box Office

7/7/08 at 9:45 AM

Photo: Getty Images

In a box-office match-up as hilarious as it was potentially traumatizing, Will Smith went head-to-head with his adorable offspring over the weekend when his film Hancock opened opposite Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, which starred 7-year-old Willow Smith in a supporting role. A few weeks ago, Willow obnoxiously bragged to an interviewer, "He thinks he is going to be beat me, but I think not. I think I am going to beat him" — to which her father, during a Letterman appearance, sagely responded, "Daddy loves you, sweetie, but I gots to stomp you at the box office."

So how'd things go down? Over the holiday weekend, drunk-superhero comedy Hancock overcame crappy reviews and Vulture antipathy to extract an astonishing $107 million from American audiences (and $185 million from filmgoers worldwide), while Willow's (presumably) ham-fisted performance in Kittredge proved to be box-office kryptonite: in its first five days of wide release, her film staggered to an embarrassing $3.6 million — not even enough to cover its meager $8 million budget — when the anticipated hordes of doll-purchasing young women failed to materialize. While it's hard not to feel a little sorry for a seven-year old whose film career is already an irreparable failure, one would think that even a second grader should be wise enough not to bet against Will Smith on the Fourth of July.

Will Smith Owns July 4th Again [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

Earlier: Will Smith vs. His 7-Year-Old Daughter
Hollywood: ‘Wait, There Are Women Who Are Children, Too?’

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