| Film | Weekend | Per | Total | |
| 1 | Despicable Me | $60,117,000 | $17,295 | $60,117,000 |
| 2 | The Twilight Saga: Eclipse | $33,400,000 (-48.5%) | $7,475 | $237,000,000 |
| 3 | Predators | $25,300,000 | $9,479 | $25,300,000 |
| 4 | Toy Story 3 | $22,000,000 (-27.3%) | $5,862 | $340,200,000 |
| 5 | The Last Airbender | $17,150,000 (-57.5%) | $5,354 | $100,227,000 |
| 6 | Grown Ups | $16,400,000 (-13.9%) | $4,736 | $111,315,000 |
| 7 | Knight & Day | $7,850,000 (-24.8%) | $2,987 | $61,939,000 |
| 8 | The Karate Kid | $5,700,000 (-28.8%) | $2,319 | $164,600,000 |
| 9 | The A-Team | $1,800,000 (-43.6%) | $1,456 | $73,971,000 |
| 10 | Cyrus | $1,375,000 (+77.5%) | $6,875 | $3,521,000 |
This just in: The majority of R&B songs break down into two categories: “I want to have sex with you” and “I’m sorry about what I did to you.”
Universal has had a number of misfires and hasn’t been able to market films that probably should have done a little better than they did, so it’s a pleasant surprise to see that Despicable Me opened bigger than expected, and could be one of the strongest films of the summer. As it’s kid-friendly and original content – and the last major animated film of the season – it could play to $200, but $150 is the safer bet. That’s big for a film that didn’t look like much coming into the stretch, so kudos for them figuring out how to get this to the kids. Perhaps Universal has done a body switch with 20th Century Fox, but they were also able to sneak attack with their Predators, and got a strong first weekend for the modestly budgeted film. Though word of mouth is mixed, it should be able to double its opening weekend numbers, and hopefully they’ll love it in Russia. So it may top out around $60, but it was “so cheap, so cheap.” International has already started kicking in, and this could double its domestic take overseas. It’s hard to say at the moment, though it does have the illusion of an international cast.
What we’re seeing from the Twilight franchise is more and more front-loading. I would front load on… you can see where that’s going (and in the case of Ke$ha, someone already did ZING MOTHERFUCKER). Though the drop-off wasn’t as terrible as it was for the last film, that’s partly because this had a six-day opening weekend. By next weekend it will be over $250, so it’s probably going to collapse around the same number as the last film. Anyone looking to talk shit about this franchise’s success is full of it, and will have to wait to see if fans turn out for the fourth film, or fifth or sixth, if they try to keep going. I wouldn’t bet against those films working or a future milking.
Toy Story 3 crossed two thresholds today. It became the most successful film of the year – edging out Alice in Wonderland – and it became the highest grossing Pixar title domestically. Such means that when it’s finished its international run it’s quite possible it will be the most successful Pixar film of all time, but I believe Disney held back some dates – as did a number of other pictures – because of the World Cup. And it’s not done, as this week it had a leveling out of sorts, and it’s got until the end of the month to hold on to its 3-D screens. I don’t know if it gets to $400 at this point, but it will be over $350 next weekend, and possibly over $360. At that point, Disney might want to try to keep it going.
The Last Airbender barely crossed $100 this weekend. As with Eclipse, the numbers are a little less off than they would have been had it not had a five day weekend to open. Paramount wanted this $100, and tried to juice it over. At the end of the day, this was the victory, and the film will probably putter from here to a $130-ish number, possibly $140, but I don’t know if $150 is in reach. They’re handing it off to international. But Paramount has a somewhat face-saving number for the moment. That’s all that matters. Grown Ups also barreled past $100 this weekend, though it looks like it could have some legs on it, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it get to $150. I think its partly the films out right now, it’s got a demographic and appeal to itself. Knight and Day crossed $60, so Fox might be able to limp an $80 domestic out of it, which turns it into an overrated under-performer – a film that didn’t open spectacularly, but through international wasn’t the disaster some want to paint it as. Again, it’s all about the overseas, which currently isn’t that awesome, but release patterns are odd, re: World Cup.
The Karate Kid is still going (kicking?), and should get to $180, and maybe a little more, The A-Team is on a limp to $80 that it might not make, and Cyrus is looking to be Fox Searchlight’s summer art film success. It’s on 200 screens, that’ll probably go up to 500 or more next weekend, which should keep it happily in the bottom ten, and the film could do $20 Million when all is said and done, though I don’t think it has the immediate hook of (500) Days of Summer so the endgame is limited. And that’s that. And that’s that.