Last weekend moviegoers flooded the multiplexes spending plenty of cash on a variety of movies led by the better-than-expected opening for the 3D animated comedy Despicable Me which easily took control of the number one spot. The sci-fi action pic Predators also debuted well taking third place while most holdovers showed considerable strength suffering only small declines. The top ten surged to $182M which was potent, but $9M below what studios were estimating on Sunday.
Steve Carell's evil plan for world domination worked as his new toon Despicable Me hauled in $56.4M this weekend from 3,476 theaters for a muscular $16,225 average, according to final studio figures. For struggling Universal, it was the best opening for the studio in the 15 months since Fast and Furious bowed to $71M in April 2009. Expected to debut in the $30-40M range, the PG-rated pic took advantage of great reviews plus highly effective trailers and TV spots that made the film appeal to both families as well as teens and young adults. Parents with kids under 12 made up only 55% of the crowd while the CinemaScore grade was an encouraging A. The performance was especially impressive considering the fact that Toy Story 3 and The Last Airbender are pulling in kids and together grossed nearly $40M this weekend.
Despicable Me outgunned the openings of other non-sequel 3D toons like How to Train Your Dragon and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs which bowed to $43.7M and $30.3M, respectively. Both were embraced by critics and audiences alike and went on to gross four to five times their opening weekend grosses. With Despicable's summer play period, its domestic gross could easily go on to triple the $69M production budget in North America alone and add much more from overseas markets plus worldwide home video.
Following an explosive opening week that saw a staggering $187M in seven days, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse fell to second place in its sophomore weekend collecting $31.7M propelling the 12-day haul to a massive $235.4M. The third Cullen pic dropped only 51%. The decline was not too high since the Friday-to-Sunday period last week did not include the opening day turnout. But Summit should be very happy with the hold as it was much lower than the sophomore falls for the last two highly anticipated Harry Potter films which also launched on summer Wednesdays. 2007's Order of the Phoenix dropped 58% and last year's Half-Blood Prince fell 62%.
Overseas, Eclipse banked an additional $81.1M from 63 markets and boosted the overseas cume to $219M and the global haul to $454M. In North America, the latest Bella tale should be able to beat New Moon's $296.6M and finish in the neighborhood of $310M.
Fox's sci-fi reboot Predators landed in third place opening to $24.8M from 2,669 theaters for a sturdy $9,277 average per location. The R-rated action film was produced by Robert Rodriguez and starred Adrien Brody and Laurence Fishburne. Budgeted at just under $40M, the ultraviolent pic took advantage of a marketplace dominated by movies for women and kids leaving a big opportunity that a franchise-based testosterone flick could take advantage of. The weekend was heavily frontloaded with Friday accounting for 42% of the three-day gross and Saturday falling 19% from the opening day. Reviews were quite good for this genre.
Despite another 3D toon stealing away potential business, Toy Story 3 held up very well in its fourth frame grossing $21M slipping only 31%. The Woody threequel upped its total gross to a stellar $339.2M after only 24 days and on Monday will become the highest-grossing film ever for Pixar edging past the $339.7M of 2003's Finding Nemo. The fish flick has sold about 40% more tickets, though, as prices were lower seven years ago and there were no 3D surcharges added in to its tally.| # | Title | Jul 9 - 11 | Weeks | Cumulative | Distributor | ||||
| 1 | Despicable Me | $ 56,397,125 | 1 | $ 56,397,125 | Universal | ||||
| 2 | The Twilight Saga: Eclipse | 31,708,438 | 2 | 235,370,815 | Summit | ||||
| 3 | Predators | 24,760,882 | 1 | 24,760,882 | Fox | ||||
| 4 | Toy Story 3 | 21,015,958 | 4 | 339,240,857 | Buena Vista | ||||
| 5 | The Last Airbender | 16,635,471 | 2 | 99,712,757 | Paramount | ||||
| 6 | Grown Ups | 15,806,738 | 3 | 110,721,531 | Sony | ||||
| 7 | Knight and Day | 7,719,251 | 3 | 61,808,110 | Fox | ||||
| 8 | The Karate Kid | 5,365,636 | 5 | 164,301,124 | Sony | ||||
| 9 | The A-Team | 1,752,421 | 5 | 73,923,594 | Fox | ||||
| 10 | Cyrus | 1,280,470 | 4 | 3,426,545 | Fox Searchlight | ||||
| 11 | The Girl Who Played With Fire | 904,998 | 1 | 904,998 | Music Box | ||||
| 12 | Get Him to the Greek | 711,625 | 6 | 59,424,055 | Universal | ||||
| 13 | I Am Love | 503,008 | 4 | 2,003,059 | Magnolia | ||||
| 14 | Shrek Forever After | 502,392 | 8 | 233,784,897 | Paramount | ||||
| 15 | The Kids Are All Right | 491,971 | 1 | 491,971 | Focus | ||||
| 16 | Winter's Bone | 456,495 | 5 | 2,512,455 | Roadside Attrac. | ||||
| 17 | Solitary Man | 419,338 | 8 | 3,505,279 | Anchor Bay | ||||
| 18 | Iron Man 2 | 392,755 | 10 | 309,237,294 | Paramount | ||||
| 19 | Marmaduke | 353,815 | 6 | 31,545,737 | Fox | ||||
| 20 | Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time | 348,308 | 7 | 89,004,440 | Buena Vista | ||||
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