PREDICTED WEEKEND BOX OFFICE

Last week's holiday weekend proved to be less profitable for the third installment of the phenomenally popular Twilight film series, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, than previously predicted as the film made roughly less over the three-day weekend as it did on it's opening day last Wednesday. Now with two new films opening this weekend, the animated family movie Despicable Me and Robert Rodriguez's Predators, the big question still remains: will the returning Twilight fans be enough to keep the film at the top of the box office for a second week in a row?

It would seem that the answer to that question is no as early indications predict that Universal's new animated film Despicable Me will take the number one spot away from the vampires this weekend with $37.5 million. 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. Currently the film has an average rating of a 4.0 on our site. Out of the eleven people who have rated the film five have given it five stars while the trailer for the film has had over 3,000 views. Here is what one of our readers had to say about the new film. "I was lucky enough to see an advance screening of the movie, with my kids. This film was very good. The animation was good and the characters were funny. This was also a very cute film."

Predicted to fall one space back from last week to second place is The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which debuted last Wednesday making $68.5 million in one day but then went on to make only an additional $64.8 million over the weekend for a five day total of around $137.5 million. The film, which stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, (Taylor Lautner, Dakota Fanning and Bryce Dallas Howard, scored the fourth highest-grossing Independence Day opening weekend ever, behind Spider-Man 2, Transformers and War of the Worlds, respectively. The film screened in a record 4,468 theaters and scored an average of $15,443 on each screen, but was unable to even come close to cracking the $158 million that The Dark Knight made in it's three-day opening weekend. For the four-day weekend, the film came in at $83.6 million, behind Spider-Man 2's $115.8 million. In its first six days, Eclipse made $176.4 million, ranking as the seventh highest-grossing six-day start ever, falling short of New Moon's $178.9 million but almost doubling Twilight's $88.1 million. Now after a full week of release the film has made a combined total of around $186 million domestically, earning back it's initial production cost and generating a profit of over $100 million. The film is predicted to earn an additional $27.1 million this weekend.

Predicted to debut at number three this week 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 is predicted to debut this week with around $25.6 million. Currently the film has an average rating of a 4.5 on our site. Out of the thirty-one people who have rated the film twenty have given it five stars while the trailer for the film has had over 76,000 views. Here is what one of our readers who had a chance to see the film early had to say about it. "The visuals were amazing, the deaths were incredibly cool, the plot was good and so was the pacing. It is also kind of scary. It was better than the original! GO SEE IT!"

Predicted to fall back one place 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 50% last week from the week before and was seen on 4,028 screens, earning about $7,491 on each. The film also earned an additional $30.1 million last weekend, bringing it's total gross to around $289 million in just three weeks of release, which far surpasses it's purported production cost of $200 million. The film is predicted to earn an additional $19.8 million this weekend.

Rounding off the top five this weekend and predicted to fall 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. Last week the film was seen on 3,169 screens and earned around $12,827 on each for a weekend total of around $40.5 million. The film opened a day early on July 1st and earned $56.8 million over the four-day weekend. It was director M. Night Shyamalan's third best opening weekend ever behind right behind Signs and The Village. The film is predicted to earn an additional $16.6 million this weekend, but that won't be enough to earn back it's $150 million production cost.

The rest of the top ten films at the box office this weekend are predicted to look like this:

Predicted to fall two spots back from last week to number six 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. Despite dropping 52.8% from its debut week, the film managed to earn about $5,405 on each of it's 3,534 screens last week for an additional $19.1 million. That brings the films total to around $77.6 million in just two weeks of release and the film is predicted to earn an additional $10.2 million this weekend, which should be more than enough to earn back it's $80 million production cost.

Predicted to fall two places back from last week to number seven is the action/comedy Knight and Day about an ordinary girl who unintentionally gets involved with a secret agent, featuring super star actors Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in the leading roles. Last week the film dropped almost 50% from the previous week and despite being added in six theaters only earned $3,351 on each of it's 3,104 screens. The film managed to earn an additional $10.4 million last weekend, which brings it's total to only $45.7 million in just two weeks, which is a far cry from its $117 million production cost. The film is predicted to earn an additional $7.2 million this weekend.

Predicted to fall two places to number eight this week 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. The film dropped almost 48.5% last week from the previous week and was seen on six hundred and thirty-one less theaters than the week before but the film still managed to make around $2,573 on each of its 3,109 screens, earning an additional $8 million for the weekend. The movie has now made an impressive $151 million in just four weeks of release, far surpassing its $40 million production cost. It's estimated to earn an additional $6.4 million this weekend.

Predicted to drop two places from last week to number nine is The A-Team, an adaptation of the classic '80s TV show. The film 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. Together they 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 movie dropped 48.6% last week and was seen in 1,089 less theaters than the week before. Still the film managed to earn roughly $1,482 on each of its 2,153 screens for an additional $3.1 million last weekend. The film has now earned around $69.2 million in three weeks but will still have a ways to go if it hopes to earn back its $110 million production cost. The film is predicted to earn an additional $3.5 million this weekend.

Finally, predicted to fall two places back from last week to number ten is the rock n' roll comedy Get Him to the Greek, produced by Judd Apatow. The film stars Jonah Hill (Superbad) as a record company assistant who is told by his boss (Sean Combs) that he has three days to get a washed-up, alcoholic rock singer played by Russell Brand (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) from London to Los Angeles for his comeback show. The movie dropped 60.7% last week and was seen in 1,304 less theaters than the week before. Still the film managed to earn roughly $1,395 on each of its eight hundred and eighty-four screens for an additional $1.2 million last weekend. The film is predicted to earn another $2.9 million this weekend and has now earned $57.4 million at the box office since its release almost five weeks ago. Be sure to check out Box Office Beat Down this Sunday to see who is crowned the King of the box office this week and check back here next week for more box office predictions!