The Twilight Saga: Eclipse earned an estimated $82.5 million over the four-day July 4th weekend giving the Summit release a mammoth total of $175.2 million after six days of release.  Coupled with a potent debut from the poorly-review The Last Airbender, which earned an estimated $53.1 million, and a strong holdover showing by Toy Story 3, which brought in $42 million, the box office soared 19% over last year when Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen remained on top with $42.3 million and 22% from 2008 when Hancock debuted at #1 with $62.6 million.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): July 2 - 4, 2010
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Average/ Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	$69,000,000	4,468	$15,443	$161,000,000	1
2	The Last Airbender	$40,525,000	3,169	$12,788	$56,825,000	1
3	Toy Story 3	$30,174,000	4,028	$7,491	$289,000,000	3
4	Grown Ups	$19,100,000	3,534	$5,405	$77,681,000	2
5	Knight & Day	$10,400,000	3,104	$3,351	$45,708,000	2
6	The Karate Kid	$8,100,000	3,109	$2,605	$151,623,000	4
7	The A-Team	$3,150,000	2,153	$1,463	$69,240,000	4
8	Get Him to the Greek	$1,251,000	884	$1,415	$57,492,000	5
9	Shrek Forever After	$847,000	957	$885	$232,230,000	7
10	Cyrus	$774,000	77	$10,052	$1,492,000	3

Because films that open over the 4th tend to debut before the weekend, their actual weekend totals are somewhat depressed, but Eclipse’s six-day total is close to Spider-Man 2’s massive $180.1 million six-day score from 2004 (though if adjusted for ticket price inflation Spidey 2’s total would be north of $195 million).  The Twilight series appears to be getting more front loaded, and Eclipse is still tracking just behind its predecessor New Moon ($178 million in its first 6 days), but the property remains very strong.  Summit indicates that weekend Eclipse customers were 35% male, which is up a solid 15% from New Moon, though it should be noted that the audience for Eclipse’s Wednesday opening was more than 80% female.

 

The Last Airbender managed only a 9% positive rating from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, but the young, primarily male fans of the Nickelodeon animated property came out in droves anyway.  Earning an estimated $53.1 million over the 4-day weekend, The Last Airbender could experience a major drop next weekend, but it has already brought in over $70 million domestically.

 

Pixar’s Toy Story 3 has now passed the $300 million mark, and could potentially have a chance at $400 million given the “legs” demonstrated by the typical Pixar release.  Toy Story 3 will face direct competition this coming weekend with the release of the heavily advertised animated film Despicable Me.

 

The Adam Sandler-led Grown Ups finished in fourth place with a $26.5 million total and, with its total already over $85 million, it will certainly break the $100 million mark.  The A-Team, which finished in the seventh spot, has earned just over $70 million in 4 weeks and appears unlikely to make the century mark.

 

As for comic book-based movies, Iron Man 2 finished in 12th place and brought its summer-leading total to $308.5 million, while at the other end of the success spectrum, Warner Bros.’ Jonah Hex has been ignominiously pulled from theaters marking it as 2010’s biggest “bomb” so far.