Friday Box Office | featured news

Steve Carell comedy opens at No. 1 with $8.4 million, followed by "Inception's" $8.2 million and "Salt's" third place, $5.9 million showing.

FRIDAY 9:45 PM: Sources just gave me these very early box office numbers for today. I'll refine them when I post my analysis:
1 - Dinner For Schmucks (Paramount)
$8.5M Friday, $24M Est Weekend
2 - Inception (Warner Bros)
$8M Friday, $27M Est Weekend
3 - Salt (Sony)
$5.6M Friday, $18M Est Weekend

Angelina Jolie's "Salt" gave "Inception" a run for its money with a $12.7 mil debut Friday versus "Inception's" $13.2 daily tally.

Leonardo DiCaprio's "Inception" is anything but a sleeper as the thriller opened big with $60.4 million and a No. 1 finish at the weekend boxoffice.

Christopher Nolan is having a fantastic Saturday. Jerry Bruckheimer is not. For the Dark Knight director scored over $21 million on Friday for his original, mind-bending film Inception. (That includes the $3 million brought in from the opening midnight shows.) The Leonardo DiCaprio-starrer, from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, could now earn $60 million for its three-day opening frame. That’s quite a contrast to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Disney’s failed attempt to recreate the magic of The National Treasure franchise. The film from Treasure producer Bruckheimer, director Jon Turteltaub and star Nicolas Cage grossed an estimated $5 million on Friday for a weekend take that may just hit $15 million. The film opened on Wednesday but even those two days of grosses won’t help the film get much past $20 million for the five-day period.

FRIDAY 8 PM: (Numbers will be refined later tonight.)
... Despicable Me 3D today is translating into "amazing" attendance of $22 million for what could be a $55M-$60M weekend opening despite having two other 3D family films in the marketplace.

As expected, Pixar/Disney's Toy Story still tops the North American box office for the 2nd straight week. Sony Pictures' Grown Ups continues Adam Sandler's near-perfect string of $40M weekend comedy openings for a strong second-place finish. And Twentieth Century Fox's Knight And Day brings up third place with better-than-expected estimates of $20M for the 3-day weekend and $27M for its 5-day cume.

The third installment in the blockbuster "Toy Story" franchise roared out of the gate, collecting an estimated $41 million at the North American boxoffice on Friday.

FRIDAY PM UPDATE: My studio sources tell me that very early numbers show that Sony's kid-friendly Karate Kid reboot starring Will Smith's son will be #1 this weekend with nearly $50M. Expectedly, Fox's film action version of the 80's TV series The A-Team will finish #2 -- but only with about $30M which is embarrassing for what was supposed to be the start of another franchise. (Read my backgrounder, 11 WRITERS LATER: 'The A-Team'.) I'll have more info later tonight.

Film News: Animated sequel bests 'Greek' and 'Killers' -- The 3D pic took in an estimated $6.7 million in 4,386 runs, topping several films that opened this week.