Seven-Day Summary: 'Eclipse' Leaps Past $200 Million
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse easily topped the box office in its first full week, and in the process brought its total to over $200 million in just nine days. Though far below Eclipse, The Last Airbender was impressive in its own right, and Toy Story 3 had another huge week and is well on pace to become the top earner of 2010. Overall box office came in at $334 million for the week, up a whopping 29 percent over the same timeframe last year when Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs led with $67 million.
In a record-setting 4,468 locations, Eclipse earned $110.9 million for the week. On Thursday, Eclipse passed the $200 million mark, becoming the tenth fastest movie to reach this point despite taking one more day to do so than its predecessor New Moon. Through its first nine days, Eclipse has made $203.7 million, lagging behind New Moon's $222.3 million. Neither of these statistics provides an apples-to-apples comparison, though, as Eclipse opened on a Wednesday in the summer and New Moon opened on the Friday before Thanksgiving.
The Last Airbender grossed $65.6 million for an eight-day total of $83.1 million. This represents writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's second-best eight-day start ever, behind Signs in 2002, though it also falls behind The Village in terms of estimated attendance. Despite its huge start, The Last Airbender dropped below Toy Story 3 from Monday through Thursday, which is an indication that it's in for a sizable decline this weekend.
Toy Story 3 finished third for the week, down 35 percent to $59.4 million. On Monday, its 18th day, it became only the second Pixar movie and the third 2010 release to pass the $300 million mark. It's the seventh-fastest movie to hit this milestone. Through three weeks, Toy Story 3 has rounded up a massive $318.2 million, and should pass Alice in Wonderland this weekend to become the highest-grossing movie of 2010. It's also now poised to pass Finding Nemo's $339.7 million by Monday or Tuesday at the latest to become Pixar's top-grossing movie ever (though it will still rank in the bottom half in terms of estimated attendance).
Meanwhile, Grown Ups was off 38 percent to $36.3 million for a two-week total of $94.9 million. This is the highest-grossing two-week start for an Adam Sandler comedy since Click in 2006. Not as impressive was Knight & Day's second week haul. While it dipped a relatively light 33 percent to $18.8 million, its $54.1 million total indicates that it will be the first Tom Cruise action movie to fall short of $100 million in at least 20 years.
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Related Charts
• Weekly Box Office, July 2-8
• Daily Grosses