Weekend Box-Office: July 30-August 1, 2010

WEEKEND BOX-OFFICE

The
Nolan train keeps on truckin’….

It must’ve been a great 40th-birthday party for
director Christopher Nolan this past week, as his latest film
INCEPTION continued its box-office dominance, remaining in the top
spot for a 3rd weekend in a row (a rarity during the summer
months) and ballooning its total close to the $200M mark, after
only three weeks of release. The film only lost about 35% of its
audience from last weekend, which is also a pretty remarkable
number, after so many weeks of release. As we’ve already mentioned
before, it seems like more and more people are going to see the
film again and again, leading to consistent growth.

DESPICABLE ME is also doing really well, as it too
closes in on the $200M mark after one month of release. The film
only cost about $70M, so it’s already a grand success for its lead
voice-actor Steve Carrel, who seems to have made a good decision
in quitting TV’s "The Office" after this season, as his
newest comedy release, DINNER WITH SCHMUCKS, also opened pretty
well in 2nd place this weekend (only $4M behind INCEPTION), giving
Carrel 2 hit films in the top 4 this weekend. That’s what she
said!

The other two new releases of the weekend, CATS
& DOGS: THE REVENGE OF THE LONG TITLE and CHARLIE ST. CLOUD,
both opened decently in 5th and 6th place respectively, but
certainly didn’t generate enough box-office or critic praise, to
write home about. The $12M opening was especially disappointing
for the CATS & DOGS sequel, since it cost close to $90M to
make, and since its first film had opened with $21M back in 2001
and finished with $200M worldwide. I guess that’s what happens
when you wait 9 years to create a so-called sequel, which is
probably just a money-grab.

Last week’s #2 movie, SALT, also continued its
merry way this weekend, adding another $20M to its total, which is
now at $71M after only 10 days of release. TOY STORY 3 also
continued on its awesome way, adding a mere $5M to its total, but
closing in on the top
10 grossing movies of all-time! (it’s now in 11th place, only
$4M behind TRANSFORMERS 2 and $5M behind SPIDER-MAN). The 3 films
to get bounced from the top 10 this week include RAMONA AND BEEZUS
($16M), PREDATORS ($50M) and THE LAST AIRBENDER ($127M). The third
feature in the TWILIGHT franchise, ECLIPSE, will likely be kicked
out of the top 10 next week, and doesn’t appear as though it will
beat it predecessor’s record of $296M in domestic revenues.

Next weekend sees the release of one of the movies
I’ve been looking forward to the most this summer entitled THE
OTHER GUYS, from the team that brought us ANCHORMAN, TALLADEGA
NIGHTS and STEPBROTHERS. The film stars Mark Wahlberg and Will
Ferrell, along with hottie Eva Mendes. The only other big release
is for STEP
UP 3-D, which is a friggin’ dance movie in 3D! I repeat, a
friggin’ dance movie in 3D, folks. Is this where 3D jumps the
shark? That aside, what’s your take on THE OTHER GUYS? VOTE
HERE!!!

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