BOX OFFICE WATCH: 16-18 JULY, WEEK 29 OF 2010

Week 29/2010 US BOX OFFICE WEEKEND 16-18 July 2010

For the third year in a row, Warner Bros conquered the third weekend of July with a powerful opening. In 2008, this weekend saw The Dark Knight muscled in an opening weekend record that holds till today. Last year, the sixth installment of Harry Potter took a powerful lead. Similarly on the script for this year, Warner Bros done it again. Perhaps one of the most anticipated movie of the year, Inception lived up to the expectation by gunning a powerful $60.4 million opening. The figure is not a record cracker but the Christopher Nolan's helmer about heist and subconscious thriller was well received, aiming to put an end to a so far disappointing summer season. Inception also performed well worldwide with $15.6 million start from seven markets internationally, including $8.6 million in UK and the rest from Asian markets - Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, India and Thailand.

[NUMBER 1] Christopher Nolan is now a name that could not let you down when it comes to making a high quality, conceptual and brilliant movie. Inception lived up to its expectation by garnering powerful critics, acclamation from the audiences and grossed $60.4 million start on the US Box Office. The twists on the movie made some significant impacts around the world wide web, with discussions about the story and its intriguing ending became one of the trending topics. Add in from the foreign market, the heist thriller has collected $76 million on first week itself. Warner Bros has planned a thorough opening on a global scale in the next fortnight including key openings worldwide this weekend.

[NUMBER 3] This could be a sad news. Last May's Prince of Persia did not garnered the sort of opening which Jerry Bruckheimer deserved. Making matter worst was that Sorcerer's Apprentice, grossed even lackluster compared to the game adaptation. The weekend saw the new pic opened at third and made only $17.37 million, for $24.46 million 5-days start. This could be one of the lowest opening under Bruckheimer's name since King Arthur back in 2004. The latest offering failed to connect to the audiences at Stateside but managed to grab some money from foreign markets, an additional $8.3 million into its coffer.

Rank	Movie Title	Weekend Gross ($)	Change (%)	Total Gross ($)
1	INCEPTION	60,400,000	NEW	60,400,000
2	DESPICABLE ME	32,734,000	-42.0	118,365,000
3	THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE	17,373,000	NEW	24,461,000
4	THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE	13,500,000	-57.4	264,900,000
5	TOY STORY 3	11,742,000	-44.1	362,709,000
6	GROWN UPS	10,000,000	-36.7	129,254,000
7	THE LAST AIRBENDER	7,450,000	-55.2	114,833,000
8	PREDATORS	6,800,000	-72.5	40,084,000
9	KNIGHT & DAY	3,700,000	-52.1	69,209,000
10	THE KARATE KID	2,200,000	-59.0	169,202,000

*Note: All figures are ESTIMATED grosses. Courtesy of BOX OFFICE MOJO.