WILL Smith has yet again proved himself to be “Mr Dependable” at the US box office after landing the coveted No.1 spot for the eighth consecutive time in his career with superhero flick Hancock – despite some scathing reviews.

Distributor Columbia Pictures announced on Sunday that the Peter Berg-directed action flick sold an estimated $66 million worth of tickets across Northern America during the three days beginning July 4 (Independence Day), easily taking it to the top spot.

The figures also mean that since opening on July 2 – with Tuesday-night previews rolled into Wednesday sales – the film has earned $107.3 million. And while its opening day gross of just over $17 million was significantly below last year’s massive $27-plus million for Transformers, they still mark another major personal success for Smith.

In total, Smith, aged 39, has enjoyed top spot during the pivotal July 4 holiday period in America on five occasions, beginning with 1996’s Independence Day, which remains his all-time personal best.

In Hancock, Smith plays a dishevelled superhero who is forced to undergo an image change when his exploits (and the collateral damage he causes) turns him into a public enemy. With the help of an image consultant, Hancock turns his life around, but then falls foul of the PR guru’s wife (played by Oscar winner, Charlize Theron).

While audiences greeted Smith’s latest by flocking to it in their droves, critics in America were less impressed and the film drew more bad notices than positive ones.

The Hollywood Reporter hailed the “great concept” but lamented its “shaky execution”, while Variety wrote that “this misguided attempt to wring a novel twist on the superhero genre has a certain whiff of The Last Action Hero about it”.

The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, stated: “It’s a strange feeling to see the summer’s most promising premise self-destruct into something bizarre and unsatisfying, but that is the Hancock experience.”

The word wasn’t all bad, though, as respected American critic Roger Ebert concluded that “Hancock is a lot of fun, if perhaps a little top-heavy with stuff being destroyed”. And Rolling Stone felt that Smith is “on fire”, adding: “There’s nothing like a star shining on his highest beams. You follow him anywhere.”

Elsewhere in American cinemas, last week’s box office champion, Walt Disney’s robot love story WALL-E slipped to No. 2 with $33.4 million, taking its 10-day total to $128.1 million.

Read our review of Hancock

• Delicious
• Digg
• Reddit
• Facebook
• Stumbleupon