The Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg action comedy The Other Guys snatched the box office crown with an estimated $35.6 million, the second biggest opening ever for Ferrell.  Inception, which topped the charts for the past three weekends, dropped just 32.3% and finished in second place, while Disney’s Step Up 3-D debuted disappointingly with an estimated $15.5 million.  Step Up’s lackluster bow and the similarly slow start of the 3-D animated feature Cat’s and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore have led some Tinseltown analysts to speculate that the 3-D boom may be waning.  Overall, after several strong weekends, the box office was down 10% from last year when G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra opened with $54.7 million.

The “PG-13” rated cop comedy The Other Guys dominated because it managed to attract a young (55% under 25) male (56%) audience.  Critics gave The Other Guys high marks (80% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), and running a promo during the season premiere of Jersey Shore certainly didn’t hurt the Adam McKay-helmed comedy with its target audience.  McKay’s next project could be an adaptation of Garth Ennis’ The Boys, especially if The Other Guys continues to do well for Sony.

Disney’s Step-Up 3-D earned a mediocre $6,366 per venue, which is not a strong number for 3-D movie given the extra charge for tickets.  But can anyone extrapolate the decline of 3-D from Step-Up 3-D’s weaker-than-expected bow?  Not really considering the film’s target demographic is young (70% under 25) and female (60%), and that most of the successful 3-D movies this year went after a much broader audience.

Angelina Jolie’s action film Salt earned an estimated $11.1 million in its third weekend and should pass the $100 million mark by this time next week.  The comedy Dinner for Schmucks suffered a major 55.4% drop thanks to competition from The Other Guys and finished in fifth place with an estimated $10.5 million.

Universal’s animated hit Despicable Me ended up at #6 during its fifth weekend.  So far the minions have pulled in a sizzling $209 million, while Pixar’s Toy Story 3 remained in the top ten for the 8th straight week as it closed in on $400 million, making it the film to beat so far in 2010.  TS 3 has done even better overseas bringing in nearly $500 million for a worldwide total of $895 million.

Next weekend should be very interesting as the comic book-based Scott Pilgrim vs. the World opens along with the female-centric Eat, Pray Love starring Julia Roberts, and the action-heavy The Expendables featuring Sly Stallone and Mickey Rourke.