Midsummer weekend's dream for 'Inception'

By Sarah Sluis

This week, original films, not franchises, won out at the box office.

Leading the pack, Inception finished up the weekend with $60.4 million, on the high side of expectations.

Midnight screenings drew in $3 million, and both Friday and Saturday brought in similarly-sized crowds before dropping slightly on Sunday. Now that the secret is out about the movie's dream-within-a-dream structure, the blogosphere is diving in and dissecting the movie. The most exhaustive analysis to date comes from a New York Magazine interview with actor Dileep Rao (he plays the chemist). For those that have seen the movie [spoiler alert], his take is this: you can hear the top wobble at the end.

Earning double the amount of newbie release The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the original animation title Despicable Me dipped just 42% to finish in second place with $32.7 million, while Apprentice debuted to just $17.3 million. Poor reviews, a muddled

marketing campaign (in my opinion), and just a general confusion of how this Sorcerer's Apprentice related to a Mickey Mouse Fantasia sequence may have contributed to this family-friendly movie's lackluster performance. Despicable Me has the advantage of being fresh and original, and in the land of so many remakes, it's nice to see an original movie open strongly and hold its ground.

That came-out-of-nowhere kid-driven musical Standing Ovation drew in minuscule audiences, ending up with just $361,000 and a pitiful per-screen average of $361. This movie will likely screen much better on DVD at preteen sleepovers.

Among returning movies in the top ten, Predators suffered the worst fate. The reboot of the action/horror franchise plummeted 72% to $6.8 million. Toy Story 3 continued its slow float downward, losing 44% of last week's gross but still finishing with $11.7 million. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse slid down a steep slope, dropping 57% to $13.5 million. Grown Ups held the strongest, with just a 36 % dip for a total of $10 million.

After four weeks of increases at the box office, Cyrus fell 16% in its fifth week to grab the eleventh-place spot and $1.07 million, bringing its total to $5 million. The new indie on the block, The Kids Are All Right, is moving in the opposite direction. The family-centered comedy-drama went from seven to 38 locations, doubled its gross, and finished with $1.02 million, and a standout $27,000 per-screen average.

This Friday, kids' literary adaptation Ramona & Beezus will draw in the young crowd, while the rogue spy movie Salt will lure in audiences with headliner Angelina Jolie.