Box Office Update 6/25-6/27: Toy Story 3 is Dominant

  Last week Pixar brought the second Toy Story sequel to the screen. It was greeted with great reviews, strong word of mouth and great enthusiasm from audiences all over the country. The animated film helped invigorate the summer box office while also giving Pixar the biggest opening in their history. The $110 million opening film has a strong second weekend, coming in just shy of $60 million. I suspect it will continue to do well throughout its run, it is the sort of movie that invites revisits, welcomes family, and won't fail to put a smile on your face.

The big new release of the weekend is Grown Ups, which opened with a strong $40 million. The ensemble comedy seems to be a hit with the populace and reviled by the critics. I did not particularly care for it. It meandered but had no flow, no story, no purpose. The cast did not seem to realize they were making a movie, and it just fell flat with a self-serving "moral" climax. All of these guys (well, maybe not Schneider) have made good films in the past, this is not one of them.

Coming in third place with half the take of Grown Ups is the other new release for the weekend, Knight and Day. The movie is a big time star vehicle for stars Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz and they both deliver the goods. The movie is a big, roaring summer movie. Big action, big laughs, a little romance all mixed up in one fun package. This really is an enjoyable film that does not aspire to give any deep meaning or probe any intellectual depths, it is what it sets out to be, fun. Period.

The rest of the list is pretty much the rest of last weeks list shifted down. Nothing terribly surprising to be found. We all knew Jonah Hex was going to all off, while The Karate Kid will continue to chug along.

Next week will see another infusion of cash with the arrival of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Whether you like it or not, next weekend will be dominated with this movie and the throngs of fans that will surely clog movie theater aisles. Also opening will be The Last Airbender, the latest M. Night Shyamalan film, although this time it seems to be a little work for hire being it is  pre-existng source. I am also wondering it it is opening against Eclipse to give it a built in reason if it doesn't do well?
Two movies dropped off the list this week: Iron Man 2 (11) and Marmaduke (13).

This Week	Last Week	Title	Wknd Gross	Overall	Week in release
1	1	Toy Story 3	$59,337,669	$226,889,351	2
2	N	Grown Ups	$40,506,562	$40,506,562	1
3	N	Knight and Day	$20,139,985	$27,428,513	1
4	2	The Karate Kid (2010)	$15,547,421	$135,788,721	3
5	3	The A-Team (2010)	$6,204,454	$63,047,432	3
6	4	Get Him to the Greek	$3,140,780	$54,616,495	4
7	5	Shrek Forever After	$3,101,365	$229,539,089	6
8	6	Prince of Persia: Sands of Time	$2,845,684	$86,221,879	5
9	8	Killers	$1,938,681	$43,938,754	4
10	7	Jonah Hex	$1,627,442	$9,171,083	2

Box Office Predictions Recap
If you were taking the over/under on my predictions this weekend, I hope you took the under! With the singular exception of Grown Ups I was under on every prediction. I guess I should have known it would do well, the advertising paints it as a crowd pleaser, which I guess it is. Anyway, It was a decent weekend overall, but it still doesn't really feel like a blockbuster summer. More like a lackluster summer (talking money, there have been some good films).

Here is how the field matched up:

Actual	Prediction	Title	Wknd Gross	Prediction
1	1	Toy Story 3	$59,337,669	$63 million
2	2	Grown Ups	$40,506,562	$32 million
3	3	Knight and Day	$20,139,985	$24 million
4	4	The Karate Kid (2010)	$15,547,421	$16 million
5	5	The A-Team (2010)	$6,204,454	$7.5 million
6	6	Get Him to the Greek	$3,140,780	$4.25 million
8	7	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	$2,845,684	$3.75 million
7	8	Shrek Forever After	$3,101,365	$3.2 million
	9	Killers	$1,938,681	$3 million
10	10	Jonah Hex	$1,627,442	$2 million

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