Last weekend was owned by Christopher Nolan's latest film Inception. The film is a fantastic blend of intelligent thrills and eye-pleasing action. I have seen the film twice and find it to be an engrosing film that pays off on many levels from the technical to the emotional. Nolan has crafted a film that stays with you long after the images have faded from the screen. It appears to have struck a chord with audiences as well as it has remaied at the top for a second straight weekend that saw it gross more than $42 million and drop just 32%. The Angelina Jolie starring Salt came in second place with a solid $36 million. It is more than I thought it was going to open with and the more I think about the film, the more I like it. It is no grand masterpiece by any stretch, but it did prove to an exciting action/thriller whose predictabiity actually works to its advantage. I went in with my suspicions based on the trailer only to find they were not met, I found myself revising my guess on the fly as he movie went along. I was still ahead of the story, but it was still very enjoyable. It will be interesting to see what kind of hold it has going into week 2, I suspect it will drop more than 50%.
Third place goes to Despicable Me which is showing its crowd pleasing legs wth a very solid run thus far. The movie is very funny and very sweet and despite feeling a little like an assembly line in nature, it is well worth seeing on the big screen.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice may be a box office disappointment, but it is still doing well enough to land itself in fourth place. I found the movie to be quite enjoyable. Nothing terribly spectacular but crazy Nicolas Cage and awkward Jay Baruchel work well together as the magical duo who have to save the world in a movie inspired in part by a clip of Mickey Mouse magically animating mops.
Fifth place has played host to Toy Story 3 for the past two weekends. The Pixar sequel is holding steady with a mere 25% drop from last weekend as it continues its push for $400 million. It has roughly $20 million to go. Do you think it will make it? I think it will.
The only other wide release landed at what is sure to be considered a disappointing sixth place. Ramona and Beezus took in a mere $7.8 million to open its run, which will not likely be a long one. I suspect it ill do stronger on home video when parents have more flexibility to show their children.
Nothing particularly special in the latter half of the list, unless you count the disappointing run that 10th place finishing Predators has had. I found the movie to be a highly entertaining summer action film that made the Predator an interesting movie monster again after the two AVP films.
Next weeke will bring us the sequel to Cats and Dogs, subtitled The Revenge o Kitty Galore. Hopefully it will be better than G-Force. Zac Efron stretches is dramatic muscle in the drama Charlie St. Cloud. Finally we get to see Steve Carell and Paul Rudd pair up in Dinner for Schmucks.
Two movies dropped off the list this week: Knight and Day (12) and The Karate Kid (13).
| This Week | Last Week | Title | Wknd Gross | Overall | Week in release |
| 1 | 1 | Inception | $42,725,012 | $142,883,424 | 2 |
| 2 | N | Salt | $36,011,243 | $36,011,243 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 | Despicable Me | $23,689,060 | $161,289,905 | 3 |
| 4 | 3 | The Sorcerer's Apprentice | $9,651,495 | $42,609,020 | 2 |
| 5 | 5 | Toy Story 3 | $8,917,512 | $379,416,551 | 6 |
| 6 | N | Ramona and Beezus | $7,810,481 | $7,810,481 | 1 |
| 7 | 6 | Grown Ups | $7,428,742 | $142,240,828 | 5 |
| 8 | 4 | Twilight Saga: Eclipse | $7,186,170 | $279,827,262 | 4 |
| 9 | 7 | The Last Airbender | $4,217,021 | $123,308,790 | 4 |
| 10 | 8 | Predators | $3,120,656 | $46,839,081 | 3 |
Box Office Predictions Recap
Well, you win some and you lose some. With the exception of Ramona and Beezus, I was under on all counts. I guess I should have been a little more generous in my predictions, it is summer after all. On the left side of the column I fared a little better, but not much. The top of the chart was pretty easy to predict, as was the bottom. My problems were all in the middle and pretty much centered on the Beverly Cleary adaptation not delivering on my prediction. Let this be a reminder to those of you who play the numbers, don't go by my predictions!
Here is how the field matched up:
| Actual | Prediction | Title | Wknd Gross | Prediction |
| 1 | 1 | Inception | $42,725,012 | $36 million |
| 2 | 2 | Salt | $36,011,243 | $26 million |
| 3 | 3 | Despicable Me | $23,689,060 | $20 million |
| 6 | 4 | Ramona and Beezus | $7,810,481 | $9.5 million |
| 4 | 5 | The Sorcerer's Apprentice | $9,651,495 | $8.5 million |
| 5 | 6 | Toy Story 3 | $8,917,512 | $7 million |
| 8 | 7 | Eclipse | $7,186,170 | $6 million |
| 7 | 8 | Grown Ups | $7,428,742 | $4.5 million |
| 9 | 9 | The Last Airbender | $4,217,021 | $3.5 million |
| 10 | 10 | Predators | $3,120,656 | $3 million |
Article first published as Box Office Update 7/23-7/25: Inception Does the Time Warp Again on Blogcritics.
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