Inception Goes Back-To-Back-To-Back At The Box Office

August 01, 2010 | by The Infamous Billy The Kidd |

INCEPTION was king for yet another weekend, scoring a three-peat as the box office, looking down on all other movies for perhaps the final time as the #1 movie in America. INCEPTION added another $27.5 million, taking its overall domestic gross to $193.3 million, making it a money-maker for Warner Bros. and a relief for The Kidd that finally people are going out to see an original movie idea that turned out to be a fantastic film and easily the best of the summer (see… it doesn’t all have to be remakes and reboots and sequels). INCEPTION only lost about 36% of its audience from the week before, meaning people are still coming out in strong numbers to figure out what’s a dream, what’s real, and what’s up with that ending.

INCEPTION was able to hold off a valiant attempt at dethroning by some SCHMUCKS, but DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS fell short, only hitting for $23.3 million and 2nd place. $23 million isn’t a bad number, but it has to be far below expectations for Paramount, who earlier witnessed an Adam Sandler movie open much bigger and with much less actual humorous content. A Paul Rudd-Steve Carell pairing should have been an easy sell, but the marketing on this movie really screwed the pooch, as potential viewers weren’t given much to assure them that the movie was as truly funny as it was. The Kidd was way off with my $39 million prediction, but I was thinking that the prospect of a good comedy might be enough to stir people out of their homes and into the theatre for a rare gem this summer season. I won’t be thinking that again.

SALT fell from #2 to #3, losing a pretty significant portion of its 1st week audience, pulling in only $19.2 million, but DESPICABLE ME continued to stay strong in the top 10, ranking at #4 this week with another solid showing of $15.5 million. That puts Steve Carell in the top 4 with 2 different movies, but this animated flick is doing far better business than SCHMUCKS will in the end, moving up towards the $200 million mark, a number the film should easily pass next week, as it sits currently with $190.3 million.

The other 2 new releases this week were nothing special, and, as a result, audiences treated them as such. CATS & DOGS: THE REVENGE OF KITTY GALORE opened at #5 with $12.5 million, about $5 million less than I generously predicted, and CHARLIE ST. CLOUD was a shade behind the CGI animals in the #6 spot with $12.1 million, meaning romantic teenage girls weren’t all that crazy about seeing Zac Efron play baseball with a dead kid, rendering my $18 million call a bit off. The other notable performance at the box office was TOY STORY 3, which pushed closer to reaching the $400 million threshold, as its $5 million weekend inched Pixar’s latest to $389.6 million.

This week should see a new #1 with Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg hitting the beat as subpar cops in THE OTHER GUYS. While neither has really had a big opener in awhile, I expect that to change with THE OTHER GUYS pulling in $43 million, as INCEPTION will finally have to take a position in the top 10 that isn’t at the top. STEP UP 3-D also hits theatres this weekend, and… I’m not even going to justify that film’s existence with a predication, because anything more than $0 for a 3-D dance movie is just going to make me upset.

Here’s the full top 10 from this weekend’s box office: