Despicable Me Takes Box Office Crown From Twilight: Eclipse

Both new openers exceeded expectations at the box office this weekend. Despicable Me knocked The Twilight Saga: Eclipse out of the top spot while Predators also performed well finishing in third.

Despicable Me, the animated film from Universal, pulled in $60.1 million which is especially impressive given the limited number of 3D screens currently available. There are three 3D films out on the market right now. With a relatively low budget of just $69 million it is already a huge success.

Generally not having the built-in audience from being a sequel (or just being from Pixar) means it has a tougher road and would rely more on word-of-mouth. For comparison How to Train Your Dragon opened to $43 million but astonishingly ended up making $216 million. Despicable Me is unlikely to carry over the coming weeks like that but it goes to show how successful of an opening it was.

The other new film was Predators which drew $25.3 million. With a budget of just $40 million it is well on its way to being profitable. Reviews for the movie trended positive which for an action film can provide a boost and there was really nothing comparable already out targeting the action crowd.

Holdovers saw Twilight: Eclipse fall 49% to $33.4 million which represents a significant improvement from New Moon which fell 70% in its second weekend. Toy Story 3 is now up to $340 million and on its way to $400 million while the generally reviled The Last Airbender has somehow crossed the $100 million mark.