Hollywood is gearing for what is certain to be a spectacular five-day 4th of July holiday moviegoing period with two strong holdovers and a brand new PG-13-rated superhero picture starring the world's biggest box office draw.

Early reviews for Hancock (Sony), featuring mega-star Will Smith, are coming in very negative, with just a 31 percent Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes as of Sunday night, but it hardly matters. This Peter Berg-directed superhero flick for the TMZ/Perez Hilton generation is scoring big in industry tracking, and, although I am lowering my box-office prediction for the movie, the downgrade has more to do with positive word-of-mouth for WALL-E (Disney) and Wanted (Universal) than with the spotty early reaction from critics.

SUNDAY 10:00 a.m. (Pacific): As I first reported Friday afternoon, Hollywood is filled with happy executives this weekend, as both Disney and Universal have enormous hits on their hands. Pixar has again demonstrated its animation prowess with the impeccably reviewed WALL-E (Disney). With critics falling all over themselves to anoint the movie as a masterpiece (97 percent Fresh at Rotten Tomatoes and a  score of 92 from MetaCritic), industry estimates prove that audiences are responding in a huge way as well. WALL-E has scored a meteoric $23.1 million on Friday (I reported $23 million Friday night), although the movie will fall short of my Friday night three-day projection of $66 million. Instead of a Saturday boost, WALL-E was a bit frontloaded, actually dipping 5 percent Saturday to $22 million or so. Still, with a revised three-day estimate of $62.5 million, writer/director Andrew Stanton's film will grab the all-time third-biggest Pixar opening.

Greetings, Moguls! Welcome once again to the Tip of the Week. At the beginning of the year, I outlined my Top 5 do-overs from 2007; since we're about halfway through 2008 now, it seems like a good time to eat another slice of humble pie and admit a few misdeeds. Here are 10 bad ideas (whether films I personally chose or ones I recommended in my columns) from January through May that seem almost laughable now — feel free to cringe with me, eh? Trust me, I had to do a fairly thorough search of my slates and columns to even FIND 10 slipups (wink), but here they are, in all their self-deprecating glory. Here's hoping we all learn from my mistakes!

This pre-4th of July moviegoing weekend looks like it will be a spectacular success for Hollywood. Instead of films going toe-to-toe, as they did last weekend, when Get Smart (Warner Bros.) smacked down The Love Guru (Paramount) in a battle of big studio comedies, there will be something for everyone this frame.

Friday, Pixar unleashes its new, animated masterpiece, which some critics have already predicted will be the certain winner of the this year’s Oscar for animation. Everyone I know who has seen WALL-E (Disney) has raved about the film, and movie fans have a love affair with Pixar. With a perfect track record, the Pixar/Disney brand means that the movie will feature cutting edge animation married with the very best storytelling Hollywood has to offer. Not everyone gets it. One industry exec said to me this week, "I understand why pandas doing kung fu sell tickets, but what is so special about this robot?"

Hello one and all, and welcome once again to Bard's Eye View, where I, your plastic pal who's fun to be with, try to help you sift through the garbage of unwanted and unworthy titles of Hollywood studios' summer lineups. Now, unlike a certain whimsical little cartoon robot, I don't have the ability to crush these absurdly ridiculous films into a compact, easily stackable cube and stack it unobtrusively in a corner, more's the pity. But I can help you avoid wasting your time, energy and money (both real and virtual) on offerings that really aren't worth your scrutiny. Now, if could just figure out how to program my TiVo ... (Wink.)

Last weekend, Paramount Pictures International confirmed that it blew past the $1 billion mark in international sales for 2008, reaching that benchmark six weeks faster than in 2007. Now, based on this weekend's estimates (June 20-22), it appears that Paramount has surpassed $1 billion in domestic ticket sales as well.

Despite the failure of Mike Myers's The Love Guru, which managed only an estimated $14 million this weekend, DreamWorks's Kung Fu Panda added a likely $21.7 million, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull generated about $8.4 million and Iron Man picked up another $4 million. That should be just enough to push the Melrose Avenue gang past the billion dollar mark.

SUNDAY 9:00 a.m. (Pacific): Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway both have new all-time best opening weekends as Get Smart (Warner Bros.) has scored an excellent $39.15 million. The action-comedy delivered an estimated $13.5 million on opening day, was up 5 percent on Saturday for $14.2 million, and Warner Bros is anticipating an $11.45 million Sunday.

For Carell, who steps into the shoes of Don Adams from the late '60s TV hit, Get Smart tops his previous best opening, Evan Almighty:

ALL-TIME BEST STEVE CARELL LIVE ACTION OPENING WEEKENDS
1. Get Smart — $39.15 million (Estimated)
2. Evan Almighty — $31.19 million
3. Anchorman — $28.41 million
4. The 40-Year-Old Virgin — $21.42 million
5. Dan in Real Life — $11.8 million

To those of you who thought I had collected all of my savings and left town to move alone to a deserted Pacific island, let's cut the rumors. I'm still here, and so is your weekly appointment with the arthouse digging. The truth is, I could never go live on a small faraway place with water all around it and no film theater. My heart could not survive such a void in my life. It's a curse you know — some are addicted to cards, others to cigarettes, I am addicted to watching films in theaters. And if you're reading this, you must have some kind of interest in such things, too.

Not much change in my weekend predictions from Monday's early preview. Virtually everyone I talk to has Steve Carell's Get Smart (Warner Bros.) at $35 million or so. If the number holds, then it will be an excellent start, becoming Carell's all-time best live-action opening as an above-the-title star. His best to date is last summer's Evan Alimighty, which managed $31.2 million.

The reviews are coming in with a positive lean. As of Thursday morning, Rotten Tomatoes has the late '60s TV adaptation at 53 percent Fresh and MetaCritic is giving out a score of 52. With a PG-13 rating, the movie has a chance to play to Baby Boomers, who are fans of the original show, Gen-Xers, who saw the reruns, and teens that know Carell from The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Little Miss Sunshine. I am calling for $33 million-$36 million for Get Smart, with a possible upside surprise in the cards.

Greetings, Moguls! Welcome to the Tip of the Week. Now that we're fully into the heat of the summer movie season, you probably know which films will be hits and which will fall by the wayside. There's only so much analysis of soon-to-be-released movies I can do before I start repeating myself. So, this week I'm peering ahead to the final three months of the year — it's not quite Christmas in July, but it's a nice preview, four months out, of some flicks to keep in mind once October leagues roll around. I've got 12 movies opening in October, November, and December 2008 for you this week: four that will be rock solid (although likely expensive) Fantasy Moguls picks, four that could surprise, and four that you should probably steer clear of.