While analysts had expected Despicable Me to top the US box office this weekend, the movie did better than most had expected, grossing $60 million in its first three days. It's great news for Illumination Entertainment, as Despicable Me is their first movie (under a deal with Universal, which so far has been the only studio to laregely avoid joining the CGI movie craze).
Many had wondered wheter Illumination would be able create something that could compete with the likes of Disney and Pixar, and it seems to have gotten off to a great start, particularly as the box office is fairly chock-a-block with family friendly films.
The only other new entry in the top 10 is Predators, which took $25.3 million in its opening weekend. Although not a huge amount, it's still on the upper end of most box office watchers' predictions. As the movie only cost $40 million to make, it's certainly not a bad opening. However the real test will be in the next few weeks, to see whether generally positive word of mouth can keep audiences flocking.
Further down the list, other movies were passing milestones, with Twilight: Eclipse dropping a smaller than expected 48% from last weekend, adding another $33 million and taking it well past the $200 million mark. Grown-ups and The Last Airbender meanwhile both passed $100 million.
Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of July 9th-11th, 2010.
| Rank |
Title |
Weekend Gross (millions) |
Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 |
Despicable Me |
$60.1 |
$60.1 |
| 2 |
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse |
$33.4 |
$237.0 |
| 3 |
Predators |
$25.3 |
$25.3 |
| 4 |
Toy Story 3 |
$22.0 |
$340.2 |
| 5 |
The Last Airbender |
$17.1 |
$100.2 |
| 6 |
Grown Ups |
$16.4 |
$111.3 |
| 7 |
Knight & Day |
$7.8 |
$61.9 |
| 8 |
The Karate Kid |
$5.7 |
$164.6 |
| 9 |
The A-Team |
$1.8 |
$73.9 |
| 10 |
Cyrus |
$1.3 |
$3.5 |