Box Office: 'Inception' wins, 'Salt' strong second!
Franck Tabouring
Christopher Nolan's sci-fi thriller "Inception" held on to the No. 1 spot at the North American box office this weekend with another strong $43.5 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
"Inception" easily defeated Phillip Noyce's excellent thriller "Salt," which followed in second place with a three-day gross of $36.5 million. Angelina Jolie stars in the film about a CIA officer on the run.
Scoring an average of $11,473 per theater at 3,792 locations, "Inception" lifted its early domestic total gross to $143.6 million. Sony's "Salt" delivered a strong average of $10,105 at 3,612 locations.
Meanwhile, new entry "Ramona and Beezus" only made it No. 6 this weekend, bagging $8 million. The film starring Selena Gomez and Joey King debuted at 2,719 locations. Budget was set at $15 million.
Finishing third on the circuit was "Despicable Me," which pulled $24.1 million for a cume of $161.7 million. At No. 4, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" generated $9.6 million for a total haul of $42.6 million.
Staying put at No. 5 this weekend was "Toy Story 3," which brought its total gross to $379.5 million after a $9 million weekend. "Grown Ups" earned $7.6 million for a cumulative gross of $142.4 million.
"The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" dropped to No. 8, picking up $7 million for a total of $279.6 million. "The Last Airbender" finished ninth with a weekend gross of $4.1 million and a total of 123.4 million.
Wrapping up the top 10 was "Predators," which took home $2.8 million for a cume of $46.5 million. Opening next week: "Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore," "Charlie St. Cloud" and "Dinner for Schmucks."
Source: Box Office Mojo (www.boxofficemojo.com)
Reader Comments (2)
I still don't get all the hype about Inception...the words intellectual, etc, what was soo intellectual about it? Its a "ride" movie..plain and simple..with the wrapping of pseudo-smart babble. Even the concept doesn't seem that new what with movies like Dreamscape(1984) , Brainstorm, the anime Paprika(2006?), even the Cell (directed by Tarsem Singh) explored the possibilities of Entering the subconscious mind through dreams and extracting info. The visuals are terrific, but also more distracting like Nolan was being like the characters from the Prestige.
Sorry if I sound p***** off but I've already been made the object of enough hate by people who were 'amazed by the Sixth sense and its director" at the time....I ask them why they found it 'intellectual" but all they keep doing is repeating words like 'mind-f***'' 'mind-boggling', blah, blah..please enlighten me..I've already endured 2!! viewings (not of on my dime, luckily! :-) )
Also -will someone please tell Nolan------WHY SO SERIOUS?