"Seven Pounds" may have recorded a middling  first weekend. But its topliner says that when it comes to box-office, it's next weekend that matters. Before the mortality drama opened, the world's biggest movie star told Risky Biz that he "take(s) personally" a movie's sophomore performance. "You can buy your way to a great first weekend but the second weekend is what tells you how much they like you, how good the word of mouth is. And that I take very, very personally," he said.

Speaking of the whole The Only Movie Star in the World bit, the man who inhabits the title says he doesn't buy it. "It's kind of a cool illusion," he said. "It's an interesting media creation that I'm going to ride until she bucks me."

The bucking could happen in the coming weeks. "Seven Pounds," as weve noted, will face a very tough second box office window given all the wide openers ("Button," "Marley," "Valkyrie," Bedtime").

Still, one victory Smith can claim is getting the movie in front of a wide audience in the first place — the project might very well not have gotten made, at least by a studio, if not for Smith's interest/involvement. "The main thing is that you want people to see the movie,² said producer Todd Black last week. "And if you have someone like Will Smith, people will."