(Posted August 3rd)
Defending its title atop the box office, “Inception” held off the competition for the third straight week, finishing at $27.5M over the weekend. Christopher Nolan’s latest masterpiece surpassed its budget of $160M during the week and now stands at $193.3M in total. The film will no doubt will jump the $200M domestic mark within a couple days.
Giving “Inception” a good scare, the Paul Rudd/Steve Carell comedy “Dinner For Schmucks” did well with $23.5M in its first weekend in theaters. With the team of Rudd and Carell along with the comedic stylings of funnymen Zach Galifinakis and Jermaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) the movie will look to top the comedy genre once again this weekend.
Coming in third was the Angelina Jolie spy action thriller “Salt” with $19.5M. This marks the second straight week the film has finished in the top three, but also the second straight week in which some of its intended audience and thus revenue dreams were stolen by Dom Cobb and “Inception.”
Continuing its strong run and helping to cement Steve Carell as a top box office draw was the animated feature “Despicable Me.” With $15.5M, the film has now accumulated $190.3M and with any luck should hit the coveted $200M mark by this time next week, though it can already consider itself a huge financial success with a budget of just $69M.
Competing intensely for the fifth spot, the Zac Efron film “Charlie St. Cloud” just managed to squeak by the sixth place finisher “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” with both films garnering $12.4 and $12.3M respectively.
So will “Inception” continue its hold atop the box office this weekend? Most wouldn’t expect it with the much anticipated Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg buddy cop comedy “The Other Guys” hitting theaters on Friday. Also in the mix are the dance film “Step Up 3D” and the mystery thriller “The Disappearance of Alice Creed,” of which both films have received very favorable reviews on Rotten Tomatoes thus far.
And yet, we said the same thing last week and “Inception” came out on top…
