Box Office: DESPICABLE ME brings Universal much needed hit, PREDATORS does fine

Inception - which I've now seen and believe me, is worthy of it's insane hype. But for now, this weekend was all about the kids, the tweeny vampire fans, or those who still have faith in the Predator franchise. We'll start at the top and the biggest new release of the weekend was Universal's animated Despicable Me featuring the voice of Steve Carell that brought in a hefty $60.1 million - the first big hit for the studio in what has been a pretty awful 12 months. It will make back it's budget today or tomorrow ($9 million short as of yesterday) and is undoubtedly the beginning of a massive new franchise for Universal. A good marketing campaign, a neat original concept and visually appealing animation has played it's part, and maybe this is the beginnings of Universal becoming a worthy player in the animated world after several disappointments (Tales of Desperaux - $10.1 million opening, Curious George - $14.7 million). There's also the 3D factor, and when you consider that Despicable Me marks the 20th weekend a 3D movie has held the top spot out of 28, it's no wonder that 99% of every major new release is getting the treatment for the higher ticket prices and general audience interest that comes with it. The gimmick will where off, but it's just a matter of how long we have to put up with it. Despicable Me's taking was even more remarkable when you consider that it was still up against Pixar's giant Toy Story 3, which after another $22 million haul from the weekend and it's smallest % drop, is now the highest grossing domestic film of the year ($340 million), bringing it past Alice in Wonderland's ($334 million) total. It now only lags Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ($423 million) as Disney's biggest ever domestic release. In second place, a $33.4 million second weekend taking for Twilight: Eclipse results in $237 million domestic already and if you ever needed proof that these movies are focused on one specific audience and won't attract new fans by now - it's so far grossed just $1 million more than Twilight: New Moon's $236 million total after the same 12 day release span last year. 20th Century Fox look like they have successfully revived the Predators franchise - taking $25.3 million from the weekend. That would be a disastrous total had Predators cost $80 million as the usual, bloated Fox tentpole this year, but because Rodriguez has kept the budget down at his Troublemaker Studio's - it's a handy total for an R-Rated actioner compared to it's $40 million or so budget. As long as it stays steady, it will get a sequel (Predators cubed?). It's a 'job well done' for Rodriguez after he was brought in to revive the franchise on a modest budget after Alien vs. Predator: Requiem's awful $10 million opening weekend a few years back. He might even be afforded a bigger budget on the sequel if it continues to perform and has good word-of-mouth, and we like Fox's approach of taking baby steps with this franchise rather than blowing a huge budget on a desperate reboot attempt. M. Night Shyamalan suffers a 57.5% drop leaving The Last Airbender with a $17.1 million weekend, a domestic total of now $100 million. Reports suggest anything between $170-280 million budget, so Paramount won't be splashing any cash M.Night's way anytime soon. A sequel is likely on these numbers but we are sure it will be on a more modest budget, and won't be made by M. Night. TW LW Title (click to view) Studio Weekend Gross % Change Theater Count / Change Average Total Gross Budget* Week # 1 N Despicable Me Uni. $60,117,000 - 3,476 - $17,295 $60,117,000 $69 1 2 1 The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Sum. $33,400,000 -48.5% 4,468 - $7,475 $237,000,000 $68 2 3 N Predators Fox $25,300,000 - 2,669 - $9,479 $25,300,000 $40 1 4 3 Toy Story 3 BV $22,000,000 -27.3% 3,753 -275 $5,862 $340,200,000 $200 4 5 2 The Last Airbender Par. $17,150,000 -57.5% 3,203 +34 $5,354 $100,227,000 $150 2 6 4 Grown Ups Sony $16,400,000 -13.9% 3,463 -71 $4,736 $111,315,000 $80 3 7 5 Knight & Day Fox $7,850,000 -24.8% 2,628 -476 $2,987 $61,939,000 $117 3 8 6 The Karate Kid Sony $5,700,000 -28.8% 2,458 -651 $2,319 $164,600,000 $40 5 9 7 The A-Team Fox $1,800,000 -43.6% 1,236 -917 $1,456 $73,971,000 $110 5 10 11 Cyrus FoxS $1,375,000 +77.5% 200 +123 $6,875 $3,521,000 $7 4 11 N The Girl Who Played with Fire MBox $965,000 - 110 - $8,773 $965,000 - 1 12 8 Get Him to the Greek Uni. $707,000 -42.7% 442 -442 $1,600 $59,420,000 $40 6 In sixth - Grown-Ups also hits $100 million and is now the 11th film in 12 years from comedy megastar Adam Sandler in crossing the three figure domestic mark. Remarkable. In seventh & ninth - the tale of two high-profile Fox misfires as Knight & Day hits $61 million ($117 million budget) but to it's credit, dropped only 25% from last weekend and is hanging in there - and The A-Team is floundering on around $73 million ($110 million budget). Overall the U.S. ploughed $202 million into cinema's this weekend, a huge 41.4% increase on last year.