Box office gets “Despicable,” “Toy Story 3” becomes no. 1 for 2010

Animated family films continue to prove their vitality to the industry. “Despicable Me” earned an unexpected $56.3 million this weekend and became the latest in a line of 2010 animated hits. It can’t be deemed too much of a surprise when most animated features these days are getting positive reviews. “Despicable,” however, managed to do it with a film made by a rookie studio that was not based on any previously published material. Well done.

The box office actually went up nearly seven percent thanks to modest drop-offs from “Eclipse,” and especially “Toy Story 3,” as well as a healthy first take of about $25 million for the R-rated “Predators.”

1. Despicable Me – $56.3 M (weekend) … $56.3 M (gross)
2. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse – $31.7 M … $235.3 M
3. Predators – $24.7 M … $24.7 M
4. Toy Story 3 – $21 M … $339 M
5. The Last Airbender – $16.6 M … $99.7 M
6. Grown Ups – $15.8 M … $110.7 M
7. Knight and Day – $7.7 M … $61.8 M
8. The Karate Kid – $5.3 M … $164.3 M
9. The A-Team – $1.7 M … $73.9 M
10. Cyrus – $1.2 M … $3.4 M

One week after the Fourth of July, it seems that most films faired extremely well. Perhaps weather this weekend or more time to see movies without family commitments allowed the box office to do this well. This was 42 percent better than the same weekend last year when R-rated comedy “Bruno” topped a puny box office awaiting its Harry Potter. This time, the box office is primed for a big splash from Christopher Nolan’s “Inception.”

The last bit of big news is that “Toy Story 3” has surpassed “Alice in Wonderland” as the number one film of 2010 nation-wide and it did so in just four weeks. Look for receipts to roll in all summer long for the Pixar three-quel and possibly stand tall all the way through December 31. It should easily end up with one of the 10 highest domestic grosses ever and give “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” a good fight for highest-grossing Disney film of all time.