Inception Dashes Dream of Despicable Repeat

Inception rocked the weekend box office, toppling reigning animated champ Despicable Me and taking home an estimated $60 million in its first weekend out.

Despite being miles behind the $158 million opening of The Dark Knight two years ago, most pundits called the opening for the Christopher Nolan film solid, especially for an original, non-sequel, non-3D studio film.

The news was good for the Illumination/Universal animated feature Despicable Me, which did $32 million in its second weekend out. That is good enough for a solid second place and lifts its domestic take to $118 million.

Putting in an underwhelming performance was Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which landed in third place with a $17 million and a $24 million take since it opened on Wednesday. The live-action film is loosely adapted from a segment in the animated Disney classic Fantasia.

Also still in release and doing well is Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 3, which landed in fourth place ‘ behind The Twilight Saga: Eclipse ‘ with an $11.8 million weekend. The movie has so far grossed $362 million domestically and $267 million abroad for an impressive $630 million worldwide total.

The Last Airbender, based on the Nickelodeon action series, had a $7.5 million weekend, bringing its domestic total to $114 million. The film has grossed an estimated $20 million overseas to date.

Also still in release is DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek Forever After, which took in $260,000 this weekend to pad ever so slightly its domestic total of $234 million. The finale to the Shrek franchise has taken in $292 million overseas for a total of $526 million.