'Inception' Tops US Weekend B-O

JULY 20, 2010 - Christopher Nolan's Inception made a dreamy debut over the weekend, extracting US$62.8 million on approximately 7,100 screens at 3,792 locations. Overall weekend business was further buttressed by the continued strength of Despicable Me and other holdovers plus the mediocre launch of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, leading to an 11 percent increase over the same time frame last year, when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince dominated.

Inception marked another commercial coup for writer-director Nolan following the record-breaking The Dark Knight, and it delivered the biggest opening of Leonardo DiCaprio's career, exceeding Shutter Island.

Despicable Me dipped 42 percent to US$32.8 million. That lifted its total to US$118.4 million in 10 days, leap-frogging past The Last Airbender's US$115.1 million 17-day haul in the process. Airbender dropped to No 7 on the list.

Here are the Top 5 North American B-O actual grosses for July 16 - 18, 2010 weekend, in terms of rank, Movie name (studio), Weekend takings in USD, (Cumulative gross, USD) and week on chart, courtesy of Boxofficemojo.

1. Inception (WB) $62.7 million ($62.7 million) 1

2. Despicable Me (Universal) $32.8 million ($118.4 mil) 2

3. The Sorcerer's Apprentice (BV) $17.6 million ($24.7 million) 1

4. Twilight Saga: Eclipse (Summit) $13.4 ($264 million) 3

5. Toy Story 3 (BV) $11.9 million ($362.9 million) 5