Universal’s Despicable Me crushed the competition at the weekend box office with an estimated $60.1 million.  Produced under the leadership of Chris Meleandri, who left Fox where he helped create the Ice Age movies to form an animation unit at Universal, Despicable Me performed well beyond expectations.  With a vocal cast of big names led by Steve Carrell, and a clever ad campaign built around the title character’s cute yellow minions, Despicable Me triumphed in spite of the fact that Toy Story 3 and The Last Airbender took a combined $40 million out of Despicable Me’s youthful demo. 

Add in a strong debut (for a genre film) for the Nimrod Antal helmed Predators and potent holdover performances from the Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Toy Story 3, Grown-Ups, Knight and Day, and The Karate Kid, and it’s easy to see why the box office for the top ten films was up almost 45% over the same weekend last year when Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno debuted, and 38% over 2008 when Hellboy II bowed.

Despicable Me’s totals were boosted by 3-D screenings, though the pricy extra-dimensional showings accounted for just 45% of the movie’s total, which is a smaller percentage than that of many of the big 3-D releases this year.  But the use of 3-D was effective--audiences at 3-D showings gave the film an “A+” CinemaScore, while the crowds at regular theaters gave it an “A.”  Fifty-five percent of the audience was under 12, while parents made up 24% of the crowd.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse dropped 49% from its opening weekend.  The teen vampire pic has now earned $237 million and has brought in a worldwide total of $456 million.  It remains slightly behind its predecessor New Moon, but appears to be catching up.

Predators, an update of thescience fiction franchise from the 1980s, earned an estimated $25.3 million.  The action-oriented Predators scored an impressive (for a genre film) 65% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  It attracted a predominantly male (69%) and older (60% over 25) audience.  Surprisingly Predators only received a “C+” CinemaScore, which typically spells trouble for film’s subsequent box office run, though certain movies such as Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island managed to overcome a mediocre CinemaScore and have a solid extended run in theaters.

In spite of direct competition from Despicable Me, Toy Story 3 dropped only 27.3%, while adding $22 million and bringing its cumulative up to $340.2 million.  This domestic total makes Toy Story 3 the highest-grossing Pixar film to date, though it should be noted that because its take has been inflated by pricy 3-D tickets, it remains far down the Pixar list in terms of the number of tickets sold.  It now appears that Toy Story 3 has a solid chance to break the $400 million mark domestically, and its worldwide total is now up to $553.3 million.   

The Last Airbender dropped 57.5%, the biggest fall in the top ten, but it added $17.1 million to its total.  In spite of poor reviews, M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action film of the Nickelodeon cartoon has earned $100 million domestically.

Sony’s Adam Sandler comedy Grown Ups and Fox’s action laugh-fest Knight and Day both had solid holdover performances, especially Grown Ups, which fell by less than 14%.  They were followed by a pair of 80s remakes from the same studios, Sony’s Karate Kid and Fox’s The A-Team, both of which remained in the top ten in their fifth week of release.

Next week Christopher (The Dark Knight) Nolan’s Inception opens along with the Jerry Bruckheimer produced live-action Sorcerer’s Apprentice starring Nicholas Cage.