One of Hip Hop’s earliest stars ruled the box office this weekend as Will Smith’s latest, I Am Legend grossed $75 million this weekend.
The opening was the largest for a December movie and shattered Warner Bros. hope that the film grossed $40 million.
Legend bested the previous record breaker—Lord of the Rings: Return of the King—by more than three million dollars, a record that the film held since 2003.
Smith has proved to be one of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters as of late and the debut of I Am Legend beats his previous best of $52 million for I, Robot.
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Alvin and the Chipmunks came in second this weekend—well behind Smith—with $45 million.
Promotional tours for the film also shed light—with some attempted controversy—on Smith’s financial generosity. Smith and his wife Jada donated $20,000 to HELP (The Hollywood Education and Literacy Program). The program is affiliated with Scientology and supports the religious group’s belief that children should be home schooled.
Over the years, Smith has donated generously to other civic organizations, including more than $250,000 to Philadelphia’s Yesha Ministries, which teaches Christian based martial arts and $7,500 to Partners for Educating Actors, Composers and Entertainers according to Fox.com writer Roger Friedman.
A real estate agent who purchased Michael Vick’s Virginia residence failed to sell the property last Saturday at an auction.
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The site was home to the now infamous Bad Newz Kennels, where Vick and several friends and relatives operated a dog fighting ring.
“I didn’t see the people in the crowd I thought we needed,” said owner Wilbur Ray Todd Jr., who spent $50,000 to upgrade and fix up the home, which has been ransacked by burglars in recent months.
Todd believes the home—which sits on 15 acres and contains a basketball court, four outbuildings and “dozens of dog cages”—is worth $1 million. The highest offer for the property was $747,000.
The last defendant in the Vick dog fighting case, Tony Taylor was sentenced to two months in prison by US District Judge Henry E. Hudson. Taylor was the first defendant to cooperate with the feds during the early stages of the investigation, but turning state’s evidence was not enough to get Taylor out of jail time.
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“You were as much an abuser of animals as any other defendant in this case,”Hudson said Friday before handing down the sentence.
Chris Lighty, CEO of Violator Management (50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Missy Elliot, etc), is looking for the next big artist and is accepting submissions. Check out the video out for more details.
