Normally the question isn’t which film will top the box office each weekend, but exactly how much they’ll make. However this weekend was slightly different as most analysts felt that both Inception and the new Angelina Jolie thriller Salt had a good chance of coming out on top. In the end it was Christopher Nolan’s Inception that was the winner, taking $43.5 million in it second weekend and outpacing Salt’s still pretty reasonable $36.5 million.
Inception’s gross dropped only 30% this weekend, which is fairly unusual for films that open strongly. In fact the whole box office was unsual, as while 50% weekend-on-weekend box office drops are usual par for the course, this weekend Despicable Me, Toy Story 3 and Grown Ups all dropped less than 30% from the previous weekend. One film that couldn’t boast that was The Sorceror’s Apprentice, which disappointed on it debut last weekend and has now dropped another 45%, taking only $9.6 million from Friday to Sunday. It certainly suggest Disney will be very lucky to make back the $150 million they spent making it.
The only other new entry on the list was Ramona and Beezus, which may have gone under most people’s dardar, but took an okay but not spectacular $8 million amongst the tween crowd, due to the fact it’s based on a series of popular children’s books and stars Disney Channel favourite Selena Gomez.
Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of July 23rd-25th.
Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
1 | Inception | $43.5 | $143.6 |
2 | Salt | $36.5 | $36.5 |
3 | Despicable Me | $24.1 | $161.7 |
4 | The Sorceror’s Apprentice | $9.6 | $42.6 |
5 | Toy Story 3 | $9.0 | $379.5 |
6 | Ramona and Beezus | $8.0 | $8.0 |
7 | Grown Ups | $7.6 | $142.4 |
8 | The Twilight Saga: Eclipse | $7.0 | $279.6 |
9 | The Last Airbender | $4.1 | $123.2 |
10 | Predators | $2.8 | $46.5 |