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.

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Toy Story 3 Takes Crown for Second Time, Grown Ups Settle for Silver

This weekend's box office race was won once again by Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 3.  The newest sequel in the franchise that started Pixar's run of box office hits dropped 46.5% in its second weekend (a modest drop considering the huge opening weekend it had), adding another $59 million to its grosses for a total of $226.5 million in only 10 days.

Second place went to Adam Sandler's ensemble comedy Grown Ups, opening with a very strong $41 million.  Distributor Sony Pictures has a hit on its hands, especially considering the absolutely abysmal word of mouth around the film (as of this writing, its Tomatometer rating is sitting at 9%).

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