A Despicable Thing Happens to Eclipse

Steve Carell CGI toon wins box-office weekend; Twilight sequel slips to second, but scores another first

UPDATE: Maybe the World Cup final kept everybody home? The final numbers for Despicable Me ($56.4 million) and Eclipse ($31.7 million) were millions smaller than estimated. Most of the other top movies were off, too.

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Eclipse didn't collapse. Despicable Me just plain towered over it.

The Steve Carell CGI toon ruled the weekend box office with an estimated $60.1 million Friday-Sunday debut.

Eclipse slipped to second ($33.4 million)—and, at the same time, rose to first.

The sequel is now the top-grossing member of the Twilight Saga, having passed New Moon. The race is still close, but at the same point in their releases, Eclipse has the lead: $237 million domestically to $235 million.

Other box-office doings: 

• Predators, the weekend's other major new release, had a nifty debut. The $40 million action-sci-fi legacy act bowed with $25.3 million. Among Predator movies—and there are five of them now—that's the second-highest opening.

• Toy Story 3 ($22 million; $340.2 million overall domestic) stands poised today to become the highest-grossing Disney/Pixar movie ever—a that's-saying-a-lot category if ever there was one. (The previous No. 1? Finding Nemo.)  

 • Eclipse ticket sales were down about 50 percent from last weekend. We could say that, by comparison, New Moon fell off 70 percent, but New Moon was a Friday opener, and Eclipse was a Wednesday opener, so there's really no comparison.

• Worldwide, Eclipse's haul is now at $456 million overall.

• The Last Airbender ($17.2 million) lost altitude, but continued to defy critics by hitting $100 million domestically—director M. Night Shyamalan's first nine-figure grosser since way back when people liked Mel Gibson (Signs).

• Adam Sandler's Grown Ups ($16.4 million) did what Adam Sandler movies do: Gross $100 million-plus. At $111.3 million overall domestically, Grown Ups is now the 11th Sandler movie to hit that milestone. (With a reputed $80 million million, though, it's not one of his cheaper productions.)

• Get Him to the Greek ($707,200) saw its Top 10 run end after five unruly weekends, and a tidy $60 million gross for the $40 million comedy. 

Here's a complete look at the weekend's top-grossing films, per Friday-Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. Despicable Me, $60.1 million
2. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, $33.5 million
3. Predators, $25.3 million
4. Toy Story 3, $22 million
5. The Last Airbender, $17.2 million
   
6. Grown Ups, $16.4 million
7. Knight and Day, $7.9 million
8. The Karate Kid, $5.7 million
9. The A-Team, $1.8 million
10. Cyrus, $1.4 million