BOX OFFICE BEAT DOWN: Despicable Me Takes Over the Weekend with $60.1 Million

PREDICTED WEEKEND BOX OFFICE

While the long awaited third chapter of the phenomenally popular Twilight film series, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, earned roughly $214 million in its first ten days of release, it still wasn't enough to retain the number one spot this weekend against newcomer Despicable Me, which debuted with an astonishing $60.1 million.

Taking the number one spot in its debut this week is Universal's new animated film Despicable Me. The film, which centers around the world's greatest villain taking on the new challenge of raising three adorable little orphan girls, boasts an all-star cast of comedic voices including Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig, Will Arnett, Julie Andrews, Danny McBride and Ken Jeong. The film was seen on 3,746 screens and earned around $17,295 on each. The film is now extremely close to earning back its initial $69 million production cost after just three days of release, which should make Universal executives extremely happy.

Falling one place from last week to number two is The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, (Taylor Lautner, Dakota Fanning and Bryce Dallas Howard. The film dropped nearly 50% from its debut last week and was seen on 4,468 screens, earning about $7,475 on each. The film earned an additional $33.4 million this weekend, bringing it's total gross up to an impressive $237 million in just 12 days of release, which far surpasses it's purported $68 million production cost.

Debuting at third place this weekend is the long awaited new chapter of the Predator franchise from fan-favorite filmmaker Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids and Sin City) simply entitled, Predators. The film promises to act as a direct sequel to the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic and stars an impressive cast of actors that includes Oscar winner Adrien Brody (King Kong), Topher Grace (Spider-Man 3), Alice Braga (I Am Legend), Danny Trejo (Grindhouse), Walton Goggins (TV's The Shield) and Oscar Nominee Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix). The film was seen on 2,669 screens and earned about $9,479 on each for a weekend total of around $25.3 million. The film's debut is decent but not spectacular earning back more than half of its initial $40 million production cost in its opening weekend.

Falling one place back to number four this week is the third chapter of the extremely successful Pixar series, Toy Story 3. The film features the return of Woody, Buzz and all your favorite toys along with an all-star cast of voice actors, which include Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Michael Keaton, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Jodi Benson, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, Ned Beatty, Timothy Dalton, Jeff Garlin, Kristen Schaal and Whoopi Goldberg. The film dropped nearly 27.3% from last week and was seen on 275 less theaters than the week before, earning about $5,862 on each of its 3,753 screens. The film earned an additional $22 million this weekend, bringing it's total gross to amazing $340 million in just four weeks of release, which far surpasses it's purported production cost of $200 million.

Rounding off the top five this weekend and dropping three places from its debut last week is M. Night Shyamalan's long awaited adaptation of the popular Nickelodeon animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, simply entitled The Last Airbender. The film dropped nearly 60% from last week, despite adding almost 34 new theaters. The movie earned about $5,354 on each of its 3,203 screens. The film earned an additional $17.1 million this weekend, bringing it's total gross to only around $100 million in two weeks of release, which is still a far cry from earning back its it's purported $150 million production cost.

Doing extremely well again this week in limited release is the quirky comedy Cyrus. The film is directed by Jay and Mark Duplass and its gifted cast includes John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei and Catherine Keener. The movie went up another 77.5% this week and was seen in an additional one hundred and twenty-three theaters. It earned about $6,875 in each of the two hundred theaters that it was shown in for an additional $1.3 million over the weekend, which brings its total gross to around $3.5 million in just four weeks of release.

Debuting this week in limited release and doing quite well is the new independent film from acclaimed filmmaker Lisa Cholodenko (Laurel Canyon) entitled The Kids Are All Right. The film is about a happy lesbian couple raising two teen-age kids who finally decide that they would like to meet their biological father. The movie stars a fantastic cast of critically acclaimed actors including Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland). The film only opened on seven screens but managed to earn $72,143 on each for a weekend total of around $505,000.

Next week will see the release of two highly anticipated new films in wide release. First up is Inception, the long awaited sci-fi action thriller from director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight). The film stars Oscar nominees Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page and Ken Watanabe, Oscar winners Marion Cotillard and Michael Caine, as well as Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, and Lukas Haas.