Will Smith saves the world yet again in “I Am Legend,” opening today on a whopping 6,200 or so screens at 3,206 locations. But can the veteran box-office champ save Hollywood from selling fewer tickets than last year? Business has been comatose since the end of the summer, and as of last weekend ticket sales were approximately even with last year after breaking records earlier in 2007. “I Am Legend,” which charts a barely-rotten 59 percent positive at Rotten Tomatoes, got three stars from my colleague Kyle Smith, who as far as I know is no relation to Will. More important, Steve Mason at Fantasy Moguls is predicting the first $60 million opening weekend we’ve seen since the summer. Mase thinks “Alvin and the Chipmunks” (approximately 4,800 screens at 3,475 locations) will come in at just under $20 million, despite some brutal reviews for the singing rodents: 26 per cent positive at RT, zero stars from me. (Guess I need to avoid the folks from 20th Century Fox at the News Corp. holiday party tonight.) The other wide release, “A Perfect Holiday” at 1,307 locations, opened soft on Wednesday despite the presence of Queen Latifah and the overworked Terrence Howard (his third flick in the last three weeks) and is expected by Mase to finish in sixth place behind “The Golden Compass” (which he tabs for a 50 percent dive from its disastrous debut), “Enchanted” and the season’s surprise success, “This Christmas,” which is another African-American holiday flick. “A Perfect Holiday” got one star from our Mr. Smith and charted just 20 percent at RT.

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