Latest Twilight Entry Twinkles to New Heights

The Twlight Saga: Eclipse, the third entry in the tweenage vampire fantasy series, got off to a stellar start since opening last Wednesday.  It took in $82.5 million over the July 4th holiday weekend, adding to the $92.7 million it had already captured in its first two days of release for a cumulative total of $175 million.  Measured against a relatively modest $68 million budget, the film is well on its way to becoming the most profitable film in the series so far for distributor Summit Entertainment.

Second place went to M. Knight Shymalan's latest film, a big screen, live-action adaptation of anime series Avatar: The Last Airbender simply titled "The Last Airbender" to avoid confusion with that "other" Avatar film, with $53 million over the long weekend, leading to a cumulative total of $70.5 million so far.  Given the critical trashing the $150 million-budgeted film took (it has an 8% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), distributor Paramount Pictures is likely more than satisfied with that result.

Toy Story 3 continued to perform well in its third weekend of release, taking the third slot with another $42 million for a total of $301 million to date.

Adam Sandler's Grown Ups, another poorly reviewed film, dropped by half in its second weekend of release, adding $19.5 million for a cumulative total of $85 million.

Knight & Day, starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, came in fifth place with $14 million.  The action flick's total gross to date is a tepid $49.8 million after two weeks in wide release.