WEEKEND BOX OFFICE

The summer movie season got even hotter this weekend with the long awaited release of the third chapter of the extremely successful Pixar series, Toy Story 3. Warner Bros. adaptation of DC Comics' classic Western character, Jonah Hex was no match for the toys this weekend as they made a decent $109 million, which places them tenth on the all-time best opening weekend list right behind The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 3, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Iron Man 2 and Shrek the Third, Alice in Wonderland, Spider-Man, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End respectively.

Toy Story 3 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. While the film was predicted to take the number one spot with $120 million, it did not quite exceeded expectations. But it is well on it's way to earning back its $190 million production cost. The film earned an impressive $41 million on Friday alone, making it the biggest weekend animated opener of all time.

Falling one space back from last week to number two is the re-make of the classic Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita underdog story The Karate Kid. The film moves the action from California to China and stars Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan in the lead roles. The movie was produced by Smith's superstar parents Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. Last weekend the film surpassed everyone's expectations by taking the top spot on the charts but fell this week by almost 49%. The film earned a weekend total of $29 million. That brings it's total domestic gross to $106.2 million in just two weeks of release, which is well beyond it's purported $40 million production cost.

Dropping one space from last week to number three is the big screen adaptation of the classic '80s TV show, The A-Team, which starred George Peppard, Dirk Benedict, Dwight Schultz and Mr. T. The A-Team features an all-star cast which includes Liam Neeson as Col. Hannibal Smith, Bradley Cooper as Face, Quinton Jackson as B. A. Baracus and Sharlto Copley as Howling Mad Murdock, who together are an elite unit of soldiers of fortune, eventually living in the Los Angeles underground, hunted by the government for a crime they didn't commit. The film surprised everyone last week by underperforming, coming in second behind The Karate Kid. However, the film managed to earn an additional $13.7 million this weekend and only dropped 57% from last week. This brings it's total domestic gross to around $49.7 million in just two weeks, which is still well below it's purported $110 million production cost.

Staying in number four as it did last week, and doing better than predicted was Universal's Get Him to the Greek. It earned an additional $6.1 million this weekend. The film has now earned $47.8 million at the box office since its release three weeks ago. Dropping two places from last week to number five was the forth installment of DreamWorks Animation's phenomenally successful Shrek series, Shrek Forever After. The film, stars the returning voice talents of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas and Eddie Murphy. The film earned an additional $5.5 million this weekend. The film has now earned an amazing $222 million at the box office since its release over a month ago, earning its $165 million production cost back and then some.

Debuting at number six is the big screen adaptation of DC Comics' beloved Western character, Jonah Hex. The scarred anti-hero rides on to the big screen in his own feature film, which stars Josh Brolin in the title role and co-stars Megan Fox, John Malkovich, Michael Fassbender, Will Arnett, Michael Shannon, Aidan Quinn, Lance Reddick and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The film, which failed to find its audience this week, made a disappointing $1.9 million on Friday alone and ended up only making $5 million for the entire weekend. It is a certified bomb, and will still have a far way to go if it wants to break even and earn back its reported $47 million production cost.

Debuting in limited release this week is the quirky comedy, Cyrus, about a man who falls in love with a woman and then must deal with her strange twenty-one year old son. The film is directed by Jay and Mark Duplass and the stellar cast includes John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei and Catherine Keener. The film was seen on only 4 screens but managed to earn roughly $45 thousand per screen for an opening weekend total of $180,300. This was the biggest opening for an independent film this year.

Next weekend will see the summer box office heat up even more with the release of two highly anticipated new films in wide release and one in limited release. First up is the action/comedy Knight and Day about an ordinary girl who unintentionally gets involved with a secret agent starring super star actors Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.

Also opening next weekend is the family comedy Grown Ups about five childhood friends who reunite 30 years later for a vacation with their families staring the comedy "Dream Team" of Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade, and Rob Schneider.

Finally, in limited release next week is filmmaker Oliver Stone's new documentary South of the Border about Venezuela's controversial President Hugo Chavez. So please check back in seven days to see who comes out on top at the box office next week!