Weekend Roundup: Hits Wanted, and Found!

By Katey Rich

Who knew there was room in America's heart for both a loveable, trash-compacting robot and a super-assassin who uses rats as tiny suicide bombers? Both WALL-E and Wanted made sensational debuts over the weekend, with WALL-E in first place with $62 million and Wanted not far behind with $51 million. Both movies outdid expectations, with Wanted especially impressive as the biggest-debuting R-rated movie to come out in June. That may not sound like much, but in the season for family-friendly blockbusters, finding success is a feat for any R-rated movie.

Last weekend's champion Get Smart fared pretty well in its second frame, dropping only 48% to come in at #3 with $20 million. It was a lot better off than fellow sophomore The Love Guru which dipped a steep 60% for $5.4 million and sixth place. That brings the comedy's total gross to $25 million, less than half of its budget. What's a kooky Mike Myers way of saying "ouch"?

Perhaps the biggest standout among the holdovers is Kung Fu Panda, which held on despite competition from WALL-E and brought in $11 million, good for fourth place. It even vaulted past The Incredible Hulk, which still did fine with $9 million in fifth place. With June about to go on record as one of the best box-office periods in months, it's strong holdovers like these that continue to bring in the staggering amounts of dough.

Down closer to the bottom of the top 10, Indiana Jones just barely missed beating the $300 million mark over the weekend, but snagged $5 million and seventh place for its trouble. The Happening, on the other hand, isn't hanging on nearly as well; it dropped another 63% in its third frame for a weekend gross of $3.8 million, good for eighth place. And finally, Sex and the City made $3.7 million at #9, with You Don't Mess with the Zohan finishing things up with $3.2 million. It feels surprisingly sad not to include Iron Man in this section, but it just missed the cut at #11.

After the jump, we once again have a truncated top 20 to reckon with, courtesy of Box Office Mojo. Mongol is the real standout of the bunch-- it has already grossed $2.3 million in limited release, and added 114 theatres over the weekend. Amid the explosions of the summer, an old-fashioned epic is finding some traction with the audiences who, for whatever reason, aren't seeing WALL-E.