At least one film met my expectations this week. I predicted both Inception and Salt would maintain their positions on the chart forcing Dinner for Schmucks to settle for #3, but it looks like just one of the two was able to hold on. Taking the top spot for the third week in a row is Inception with $27.5 million, bringing its grand total to $193.3 million.
Dinner for Schmucks came in at #2 with a gross of $23.5 million, which just missed out on being Steve Carell’s highest debut of the year (not including Despicable Me), falling short of Date Night’s $25.2 million opening. Salt took a 45.9% hit, earning $19.5 million in its second week. Back to Carell with Despicable Me, which is holding strong in week four adding another $15.5 million to its pot.
Newcomer Charlie St. Cloud earned $12.4 million just beating out Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore for the fifth spot. It doesn’t look like the higher price of 3D tickets boosted Cats & Dogs’ total because it only took in $12.3 million, which is quite poor in comparison to the production’s $85 million budget.
Toy Story 3 earned $5.1 million and spot #7 followed by Grown Ups and its $4.5 million haul. Then there’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice in ninth with $4.5 million and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse in tenth with $4 million.
We’ll likely see some serious shuffling next weekend. The Other Guys could pose a major threat to Dinner for Schmucks, stealing some comedy seekers. Salt could be out of the top five completely, but Inception is bound to hold on strong. It only dropped 32% in its second week and 35.7% in its third, so it looks like it’ll have some seriously strong legs. It’ll probably even remain in the top three. As for next weekend’s other wide release, Step Up 3D, I’m guessing it’ll be somewhat of a success. The first one opened up with $20.7 and the second $18.9, so the series clearly has some devoted fans. Who knows? It could even knock Schmucks out of the top three.
There are also a handful of limited releases due to hit theaters next week. We’ve got Cairo Time, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Flipped, Lebanon, Middle Men, The Oxford Murders and Twelve. Of the three I’ve seen, I’ve got my fingers crossed for Alice Creed. It’s only due to hit 12 theaters, but should it make a killing there, a wider release would follow and it’s certainly a production that deserves it.
By Perri Nemiroff (via Box Office Mojo)
