Will Ferrell connected with audiences as a bumbling, clueless cop opposite an easy-to-rage Mark Wahlberg. The Other Guys earned an estimated $35.6 million, marking Ferrell’s second highest grossing opener ever and the first film to knock Inception out of the top spot. The other new wide release, Step Up 3D, benefited little from the extra dimension. In fact, the third iteration in the dance franchise opened to third place and $15 million, the lowest bow of the loosely connected trilogy. And the two films together couldn’t top the weekend box office tally one year ago this week, when G.I. Joe and Julie and Julia opened. Total box office was down some 7 percent.
Inception continues to astound. The film dropped a modest 32 percent for $18.6 million and a second place finish. Its total gross has now reached $228 million in four weeks of release. Salt landed in fourth place in its third weekend in theaters. The Angelina Jolie starrer dropped only 44 percent to $10.9 million and its cume edges closer to $100 million, standing at $91.8 million. Despicable Me took the sixth slot for the weekend, losing only 39 percent of its value. Earning $9.4 million; the original animated flick’s total cume stands at $209 million.
Last weekend’s holdovers didn’t hold up very well at all. As expected, Dinner for Schmucks fell 55 percent due to the stiff competition presented by The Other Guys. The Steve Carell-Paul Rudd starrer landed in fifth place with $10.5 million. The film’s total gross now stands at $46.7 million after 10 days in release. Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore didn’t fall as far, losing 44 percent of its value for a weekend take of $6.9 million and a seventh place finish. The family film’s paltry two-week cume is only $26.4 million. And the Zac Efron drama Charlie St. Cloud fell further, dropping 62 percent to $4.7 million and a total take of only $23.5 million.
Toy Story 3 and The Kids Are All Right rounded out the top 10. Toy Story is on the verge of $400 million, earning another $3 million in its eighth weekend of release. Its cume now stands at $396 million. And the Annette Bening-Julianne Moore indie sneaked into the top 10 for the first time in its limited release. The film is now open wide in 997 theaters and earned another $2.6 million for a total cume of $14 million.
Check back next weekend when the testosterone-fueled The Expendables takes on the estrogen-charged Eat Pray Love. Which sex will dominate the box office?
