Toy Story 3 scored the biggest box office opening ever for a Pixar film, earning an estimated $109 million, which included a record-setting single-day $41 million debut for an animated film (though Shrek 3 still holds the opening weekend mark for an animated movie of $121.6 million).  Along with strong holdover performances from The Karate Kid and The A-Team, the boffo TS3 debut pushed the total for the top ten films up a solid 28% from last year when The Proposal opened.  The only real blemish on Hollywood’s Father’s Day weekend performance was the abject failure of Warner Bros.’ DC Comics-based Jonah Hex, which debuted to a paltry $5 million with a miniscule per-theater average of just $1,800, only slightly better than Iron Man 2 ($1,659) managed to earn in its seventh weekend of release.

Most analysts believe that Toy Story 3 will eventually overtake Iron Man 2, which has now earned $304 million, and become the top-grossing film of the summer.  TS3 managed to please both critics and audiences.  It amassed a 98% positive rating on review-aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and managed to score an “A” CinemaScore from first weekend moviegoers, who were evenly divided between males and females with 54% under 25, (which means that 46% of the opening audience was over 25, a very good number for an animated film).  The wide demographic appeal of Toy Story 3 is the reason that the experts expect it will eventually overtake Iron Man 2.  Toy Story earned 8% of its total from just 180 IMAX screens and set a new IMAX record for an animated movie.  3-D ticket sales accounted for slightly more than 50% of the movie’s total, and the higher prices helped vault Toy Story 3’s total well past the previous Pixar debut leader, The Incredibles, which earned $70 million in its initial weekend.

In spite of the competition for its youthful audience from Toy Story 3, The Karate Kid suffered just a 48% drop in its second weekend, and managed a solid $7,916 per venue, while earning an estimated $29 million and running its cumulative to $106.2 million. 

The A-Team also fared pretty well in its second frame, dropping 46% as it brought in another $13.8 million.  The $110-million movie has now earned nearly $50 million domestically.  It may not turn out to be a moneymaker, but it’s also unlikely to be considered a real “bomb.”

Universal’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall spin-off, the raunchy rock comedy Get Him to the Greek fell just 38.6% and finished in fourth place with an estimated $6.1 million.  By way of contrast Dreamworks’ Shrek Forever After suffered the biggest drop in the top ten, falling 65% in the face of  direct competition from Toy Story 3.  The fourth Shrek film earned an estimated $5.5 million and brought its cumulative to $222 million.  It will likely finish under $250 million, which would be great for almost any other film, but a slight disappointment for the final film in the Shrek franchise.

The expensive ($200 million) Prince of Persia will be lucky to earn $100 million domestically, but it demonstrated some signs of life by falling just 19% and earning $5.273 million, which was good enough for sixth place.

Lionsgate’s romantic comedy/adventure Killers dropped just 36% in its third week, earning an estimated $5.1 million.

The only real turkey in the top ten was Warner Bros.’ Jonah Hex, which in spite of a massive TV ad campaign on male-oriented TV networks and shows, debuted in eighth place with a miniscule $5 million haul from nearly 3,000 theaters.  The movie, which EW has already dubbed “the biggest disappointment of the summer,” received a “C+” rating from CinemaScore, a very generous rating system where even a “B” is suspect.  With the failure of The Losers and now Jonah Hex, there will be a lot riding for Warner Bros. on Ryan Reynolds’ shoulders in the Green Lantern film that opens a year from now.  Will the WB be able to develop any DC Comics-based movie franchises other than Batman and possibly Superman? 

Iron Man 2 and Marmaduke rounded out the top ten.  Iron Man 2, which tumbled just 40% in its seventh frame, remains the summer film to beat so far in 2010, while Marmaduke, which cost $50 million and so far has earned $28 million, appears to be another in a long line of films that end up in the red rather than the black.