Two years after The Dark Knight set all sorts of box office records, director Christopher Nolan returned to the top spot thanks to Inception, a brainy, multi-layered science fiction/heist saga that is closer in spirit and execution to Nolan’s labyrinthian Memento than it is to his Batman epics. Meanwhile uber-produced Jerry Bruckheimer appears to have lost some of his Midas touch as his live-action fantasy The Sorcerer’s Apprentice starring Nicholas Cage debuted disappointingly in third place. Overall the box office was up 10% over last year when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opened, but down 34% from 2008 when The Dark Knight set the opening weekend record of $158.4 million.
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Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): July 16 - 18, 2010 | ||||||
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|
Film |
Weekend Gross |
Screens |
Avg./ Screen |
Total Gross |
Wk# |
|
1 |
Inception |
$60,400,000 |
3,792 |
$15,928 |
$60,400,000 |
1 |
|
2 |
Despicable Me |
$32,734,000 |
3,501 |
$9,350 |
$118,365,000 |
2 |
|
3 |
The Sorcerer's Apprentice |
$17,373,000 |
3,504 |
$4,958 |
$24,461,000 |
1 |
|
4 |
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse |
$13,500,000 |
4,001 |
$3,374 |
$264,900,000 |
3 |
|
5 |
Toy Story 3 |
$11,742,000 |
3,177 |
$3,696 |
$362,709,000 |
5 |
|
6 |
Grown Ups |
$10,000,000 |
3,074 |
$3,253 |
$129,254,000 |
4 |
|
7 |
The Last Airbender |
$7,450,000 |
2,805 |
$2,656 |
$114,833,000 |
3 |
|
8 |
Predators |
$6,800,000 |
2,669 |
$2,548 |
$40,084,000 |
2 |
|
9 |
Knight & Day |
$3,700,000 |
1,925 |
$1,922 |
$69,209,000 |
4 |
|
10 |
The Karate Kid |
$2,200,000 |
1,532 |
$1,436 |
$169,202,000 |
6 |
IMAX showings accounted for 12% of Inception’s solid $60.4 million total, but represented only 3% of the film’s estimated 6,700 screens. The audience for the PG-13 rated Inception was predominantly male (56%) and under 35 (75%). The film earned a solid, but not spectacular, “B+” CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences. Inception did well with the critics, scoring an 84% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Opening a sophisticated film like Inception in the middle of the summer season was considered a risky move in Hollywood, but the success of Inception’s debut has validated Warners’ strategy and demonstrated that director Christopher Nolan has begun to establish himself as a “brand” name who can attract audiences to a film that is neither a sequel nor based on a popular property from some other medium.
Last week’s number one film, Universal’s computer-animated Despicable Me, fell just 42% as it earned $32.7 million and easily took the second spot on the list. With $118 million earned already, Despicable Me looks like it will surpass the $200 million mark before its run is done.
Despite the fact that producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Jon Turteltaub, and star Nicholas Cage have scored huge successes with two National Treasure films, they weren’t able to duplicate that success with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which cost an estimated $150 million to make, and brought in just $17.3 million thanks to a mediocre $4,958 per theater average. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice did manage to earn a B+ from opening weekend audiences, which means that there may be some hope for the film domestically and it could also do better overseas where special effects happy fantasy spectacle films tend to do quite well.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse dropped an estimated 57.4% in its third weekend in theaters, while earning $13.5 million and bringing its total to $264.9 million. Toy Story 3 stayed strong during its fifth frame dropping 44% and adding $11.7 to its summer’s best cumulative of $362.7 million.
Also performing well was the Adam Sandler comedy Grown-Ups, which has overcome bad reviews to bring in nearly $130 million over four weekends.
Fox’s Predators fell 72.5% in its second weekend. So far the action film has earned $40 million, but it looks like this well made genre film will likely have to some damage on DVD in order to be profitable.
