Image Credit: Stephen VaughanThe weekend’s two wide releases Inception and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice both scored a B+ with audiences but still ended the weekend with markedly different results. The mind-bendy heist film from director Christopher Nolan generated an estimated $60.4 million for its opening frame, a great success considering the complicated plot line and the vague marketing campaign. In contrast, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which earned the same score from exit pollster CinemaScore, couldn’t catch a break from audiences, grossing only $17.3 million and a third spot for the three-day period. The Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel starrer has now earned a lackluster $24 million after five days of release. This will be one of those movies where Disney will be counting on the international audiences to save the movie from being a total disappointment. Despicable Me scared up spot two for the weekend with an estimated $32.7 million. The animated film’s strong hold of 42 percent puts its brief ten-day stint at $118 million. Inception and Despicable Me’s impressive numbers, which are an encouraging sign of audiences embracing original ideas, helped lead the box office to a 10 percent gain over last year at this time when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince bowed to $78 million. It didn’t hurt that The Twilight Saga: Eclipse earned another $13.5 million to put its total cume at $265 million while Toy Story 3 fell a scant 44 percent to gross close to $12 million. Pixar’s highest-grossing film’s total now stands at $363 million.
Adam Sandler’s Grown Ups landed in the sixth slot. The film continues to hold in well, dropping only 37 percent its fourth weekend in theaters for an additional $10 million in ticket sales. The film’s total take stands at $129 million. Spot seven went to The Last Airbender. The film from director M. Night Shyamalan grossed an estimated $7.4 million its third weekend for a total cume of $115 million. Predators sank like bloated, forgettable sequel it is, dropping 73 percent its second weekend in theaters to earn $6.8 million. The film’s two-week total has reached $40 million. Spot nine and ten are being filled by Knight & Day and The Karate Kid. The films earned $3.7 million and $2.2 million respectively, putting total grosses for the two movies at $69 million and $169 million.
In limited release, Cyrus, starring John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill, and Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right continues to do terrific business in a limited number of theaters. Cyrus grossed $1 million in 446 theaters for a total cume of $5 million. While the Annette Bening and Julianne Moore-starrer earned $1 million on only 38 theaters for a screen average of $27,000. It’s total two-week limited cume stands at $1.7 million.
Inception’s box office strength was always going to be in its legs rather than opening weekened. I will definitely be contributing to that repeat business.
I am right there with you, Jon. I loved it all the while being absolutely confused by it. I can’t wait to watch it again and try to put more pieces together. It was brilliant.
Definitely a very “thoughtful” movie, but its hard to get all tensed up and excited when watching a movie where-in I just keeping thinking “Oh, this is just a dream”. There is no finite reality in the movie, and that for me resulted in lack of suspense.
@AcaseofGeo
“I have frequently wondered if the majority of mankind ever pause to reflect upon the occasionally titanic significance of dreams, and of the obscure world to which they belong. Whilst the greater number of our nocturnal visions are perhaps no more than faint or fantastic reflections of our waking experiences -Freud to the contrary with his puerile symbolism- there are still a certain remainder whose immundane and ethereal character permits of no ordinary interpretation…HPL, Beyond the Wall of Sleep”
Already saw it twice in one weekend. Planning on a third.
No offense P77, but that is the most idoitic thing I ever read. “loved it all the while being absolutely confused by it”. So how do you know you loved it if you don’t even know what your watching? Sounds like Nolan Fans are just reaching, and trying to make this film more mermorable than it actually is. It reminds me of The Dark Knight, the movie was alright at best… I can’t watch it more than 2x.
And may I please add that I hope the Academy gives the film its due next winter…not just in technical categories, where it is a virtual lock, but the performances of Leonardo DiCaprio and Marion Cotillard are haunting and deserve mention.
I loved every single member of the cast, but you’re right in singling out Marion Cotillard. She rocked in this movie (and Nine, but that was a bada movie).
Every single member had a role to play at each Dream Levels. At fourth, shooting everyone in the snow so they all don’t get killed, in the third, Joseph Gordon getting everyone out in the elevator, in the second, the driver making sure that they land in water and the in the first, the girl the main architect.
Superb movie.
Oscar for Leonardo
and best supporting actor Joseph Gordon Hewitt.
I am with you. Long over due award for this actor. He should have won for Titanic!!!! and Blood Diamond and he is just plain good!
$60 million opening weekend… HA! Take that people who say intelligent movies won’t succeed! I can’t WAIT to see it again!
Awesomeness! Suck it, Bruckheimer!!!!!!
And The Karate Kid Reboot made 55 million opening weekend. Inception should have made more with all the praise and buzz.
@B- it’s a family movie so you’re looking at at least one parent for one kid
Inception isolated 1/4 of the average moviegoers such as people under the age of 16 and people with minimal attention span. So for this movie to make 60 million in one weekend is HUGE.
in a perfect world movies like inception wouldn’t be considered “out there”. all movies should treat their audiences like they have a brain to match their wallet. personally i loved inception.
^i am also a fifteen-year-old girl.
I enjoyed being completely confused and in awe of this film. I will definitely be watching it again just to try and figure it out some more. The discussions between my friends and I have been total fun.
For sure. Saw it twice opening day, and will be returning a couple more times.
I haven’t seen a movie in the theatre twice since I was in high school and Titanic came out, but I will be going back for a second viewing in Inception. Leo, I can’t quit you! Inception was brilliant.
Agree Jon- Inception is a movie that will benefit from the good word of mouth and the repeat viewers (like myself- saw it for the first time yesterday and am planning to see it again on my day off, Wednesday).
My friends and I saw this movie on Friday and it was really SATISFIED !! There was action, suspense, great story an extremely sexy cast!! JGL and Hardy gave amazing performances!
Pixar films are cinematic gold and modern day classics!! Dreamworks flicks, Ice Age sequels, The Incredibles knock-offs and Happy Feet as owls are pure pop trash!!!
What a boring movie! Don’t go
you are just dumb if it confused you. pay attention and you will understand what is happening
Wait, if someone finds it boring, that means they are “dumb”?? Jeezus, how old are people here, 12?
Yeah I think that’s an overly dismissive response. I loved it personally and did not have some of the same concerns others did (I thought the movie did have a great emotional core) but I still understand their response. I think a lot of the anger comes from the fact that before this movie came out a select few, very powerful critics wrote superior, snobbish reviews that were extremely dismissive of what they perceived would be the audience’s attention span and that seemed to miss key issues dealt with in the movie. The few people who saw this movie and didn’t like it brought up very legitimate points and I respect their views. But I’m sorry some of the critics seemed purposefully dismissive of the audience before the movie even came out and made certain assumptions about what people could and could not handle that I think pissed a lot of people off.
Well, the person’s name IS Confusedfan.
If he’d said “I found the movie boring.” that’s one thing. To state “What a boring movie! Don’t go,” hints at a personality which I suspect is arrogant and likely mundane. I found the movie vastly engaging but, hey, that’s just my opinion. YMMV.
I guess some minds were built more for Eclipse than Inception. Owen from EW may be able to help you with your ouchie boo boo on your brain since he’s dealing with the same symptoms.
People are so nice on the internet, no?
hehe @ ouchie boo boo. That made me giggle, Dave. I saw Eclipse twice and still plan on seeing Inception. It looks to be fantastic.
Just wan Inception today. It was a wonderful film.I followed all the twists and turns, never got lost going down the dream levels and also think the acting was tremendous. To add another opinion, I enjoyed Eclipse to the point of five times and still counting. Will get another view of Inception in there also. Just goes to show some enjoy both sides of the coin.
Here we go with the Twilight bashing. I saw Eclipse and I also went and watched Inception and was entertained throughout the whole movie. It is possible to enjoy both.
I saw Eclipse and I am tired of people giving me crap for it. I also saw Inception and yes, I definitely understood it, loved the film and will be seeing in again. I would have to say that 4 of Christopher Nolan’s films are in my top ten favorite films. That man does no wrong
IMHO it’s a fantastic movie, not remotely boring at all… and without giving anything away, there’s plenty of “action” scenes but they function on deeper levels than just “shoot the bad guys.”
If I see a better movie this year, I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Dude one of the best movies I have ever seen..Not boring at all..You probably just couldn’t understand it.
Agree it was boring towards the end. It just got dragged out too much. Too much cutting between dream levels.
I’m with you too John, not because I want the movie to succeed, but because I want to see it again. Also when the heck will The Kids Are All Right, Cyrus, and Winter’s Bone expand? I’ve been dying to see those films for months!
And The Girl Who Played With Fire. Cyrus is playing close to me, but that is it.
test
all the haters were wrong. one of if not the best movie i have seen in the past ten years. really makes you think. i will see it many more times! ps. twilight sucks!
Why exactly, Nicole, did you have to throw in the “bloated, forgettable” comment on to Predators. Sure it dropped alot in its second weekend but that may be more of a reflection of a limited fan base than its quality. I don’t consider it necessarily better or worse than some of the other movies in the top 10. What you didn’t mention is that at a 40 million gross it’s matched its production costs and with foreign grosses will likely make a profit. So you know, suck it with the unnecessary comments on movies you probably didn’t even see in the first place.
I thought the same thing, what an obnoxious dig. Just report the numbers and leave your editorializing out
I actually know quite a few people who saw “Predators” (including myself) who enjoyed it. The word on it is pretty positive but that still wont get many people into theaters. Predators played like a horror flick. The people that are going to see it are the people that are going to see it, and no amount of cheer-leading will get anyone beyond that fan-base into theaters. It doesn’t help that “Inception” competes for that same audience.
I agree with the other folks here about the dig about Predators, totally uncalled for. I saw it this past Friday and really enjoyed it. I had no idea that there was such a Predator fan base.
I quite liked Predators as well. I don’t remember such derogatory language being used when New Moon sank like a brick last year.
Glad to see a few others were hit wrong by the Predators dig. I guess the bloggers gotta have a little snark to prime the engine for the free-for-all that the comments below quickly become….
I enjoyed predators. It was not the best movie, but it was entertaining as heck. That comment was unnecessary and overly hostile.
Count me among those who also enjoyed Predators.
The predators comment was totally uncalled for. I enjoyed both movies, but sometimes I dont want to figure out a maze or put together a puzzle when I watch movie. Sometimes I just want good fun with aliens. Also lets not discount the cast in predators they all did fantastic jobs.
in my opinion it is quite pointless. use rotten tomatoes or imdb user rankings because cinemascore has no relation with the 2nd weekend drop or quality of the film.
I concur. I’d like to see the Rotten Tomatoes score along with Cinemascore, or instead of.
This is a thinking movie…who cares. I want Transformer back now please. I want to sit on my chair at the movie theatre and just let stuff blow up in my face and say to myself ‘wow that is so cool…i wonder if i can do that’. if a movie dont answer this question i dont want to see it.
“if a movie dont answer this question” wow. people like you are to blame for the decline in quality of movies
wow. you’re taste in movies really sucks
You’re braindead. Go smoke up some more. Unlike you, I was actually excited for the intellectual challenge Inception was going to present to me.
you’re an idiot
I don’t wanna insult you but if you think you can’t see a movie because it makes you think… you have to be kinda stupid (or at least too limited to think).
@Bob
You are what is wrong with this world and your opinion on the matter is as void as the opinion of a brainless leech sucking out quality from films in the multiplexes. Enjoy the bliss that your ignorance brings you.
@Bob. You should focus more on trying to get a girlfriend buddy.
I pity the girl.
Is it just me, or did Bob’s sarcasm just fly over the heads of a few people here?
If this was indeed sarcasm then it is again a reason why sarcasm and the web are not best friends. You can’t post randomly in a comment section and expect people to get your sarcasm.
Sarcasm? It’s hard to tell nowadays.
I’m a little surprised that Inception only got a B+ from cinemascore and that the Sorcerer’s Apprentice managed to get a B+. I guess Inception is somewhat polarizing. For the most part people love it (“best film I’ve seen in the last 10 years”) or hated it (“it was a boring mess”.) I just hope this will encourage studios to green light more original and thought provoking films. Glad Inception is doing well. Also it makes me happy that Toy Story 3 earned only 5 million less than Sorcerer’s Apprentice, yet it’s been out since mid june.
‘people love it (“best film I’ve seen in the last 10 years”)’
Eh, that’s just your typical “I-saw-a-good-movie-for-the-first-time-in-a-while-and-so-I’m-excited” hyperbole. Inception was a refreshing and interesting theatrical experience to be sure, but it wasn’t even the best movie I’ve seen this year (that would go to Winter’s Bone).
Not really. I mean when people see a good film they’ll say “best film i’ve seen in a while” or “definitely one of the best of the year.” I feel like this is a little more drastic.
“Predators sank like bloated, forgettable sequel it is”
wow ok screw you. alot of people really dug predators, and if you seriously think that Eclipse is a better and more necessary sequel than Predators then there is something wrong with you
Atleast it made its money back. McGrubber only cost 10 million to make and that movie didn’t hit 9 million
Another Nicolas Cage bomb. The paycheck actor strikes again.
Good for Inception. 60 million without an already built in audience or a bankable lead (DiCaprio is good but not the kind of actor who commands that kind of box office) is very solid.
After TDK’s massive success, I woulldn’t say a Chris Nolan film doesn’t have a built-in audience. Just like Avatar had a built-in audience, being the follow up to Cameron’s Titanic.
The directors fan base does not have as much impact and it is insane to equate that to the impact of a built-in audience for a popular story or known characters to a director’s pull. King Kong and The lovely bones would have done as well or better than The lord of the rings films if that was the case. Every Tim Burton film would have similar box office result, but he like many directors have flops following highs.
I would say the director’s fan base has a huge impact. Take M Night Shamalan for example. After Sixth Sense people were clamoring to see his films. Until he finally imploded with lady in the water.
Ask Bruckheimer about fanbases… since his new movie made about 1/20th of T2′s first weekend!
And yes, I know he’s a producer not a director… but they hyped Sorcerer’s Apprentice with his name all the same.
Exactly Joannie. How well did Sam Raimi do with ‘Drag Me To Hell’ after Spiderman?
you people are cool
I love Inception, and I hope its total box office can get near Toy Story 3′s so that the best movies of the year truly make the most money like they deserve. But I still would have loved Inception if it did horribe at the box office because box office doesn’t make the movie good.
Agreed
Agreed. It’s sad how nothing else is nowhere near as good as *either* Toy Story or Inception.
Both of them remind me why I love movies.
Exactly, they have been the only movies this summer worth going to see twice, or even talk about.
Inception is AWESOME!!!
**** HEY EW — your top 10 box office chart is MISSING this week. What gives. Please add it in! thx