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.
| Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): August 6 - 8, 2010 | ||||||
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| Film | Weekend Gross | Screens | Avg./ Screen | Total Gross | Wk# |
| 1 | The Other Guys | $35,600,000 | 3,651 | $9,751 | $35,600,000 | 1 |
| 2 | Inception | $18,600,000 | 3,418 | $5,442 | $227,732,000 | 4 |
| 3 | Step Up 3-D | $15,500,000 | 2,435 | $6,366 | $15,500,000 | 1 |
| 4 | Salt | $11,100,000 | 3,317 | $3,346 | $91,980,000 | 3 |
| 5 | Dinner for Schmucks | $10,500,000 | 3,004 | $3,495 | $46,746,000 | 2 |
| 6 | Despicable Me | $9,400,000 | 3,413 | $2,754 | $209,400,000 | 5 |
| 7 | Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore | $6,910,000 | 3,705 | $1,865 | $26,436,000 | 2 |
| 8 | Charlie St. Cloud | $4,700,000 | 2,725 | $1,725 | $23,500,000 | 2 |
| 9 | Toy Story 3 | $3,048,000 | 1,714 | $1,778 | $396,317,000 | 8 |
| 10 | The Kids Are All Right | $2,606,000 | 994 | $2,622 | $14,011,000 | 5 |
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
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.
