It’s Independence Day weekend in the States, which means the populace are celebrating by setting off fireworks, eating lots of food and, of course, going to the movies. And since the fourth has fallen on a Sunday, that means that Monday is an extra holiday. So these box office figures aren’t exactly final yet, but it’s looking like nothing will catch The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, with the latest in the vampire series earning $69 million so far for a running total of $161 million given early screenings. It might not be quite the sensation that New Moon was on its launch, but David Slade’s film is still drawing in the faithful.
The weekend’s other new arrival, M Night Shyamalan’s take on the **Last Airbender **cartoon series, has been met with gusts of vicious reviews and tepid fan reactions, but he’ll comfort himself with the fact that it took in a sold $40.6 million over the first few days, with a $57 million total. It was an expensive beast to make and market, though, and it remains to be see if word of mouth keeps it pumping away or consigns it to a fast drop-off.
Toy Story 3, meanwhile, continued to do well, with $30.1 million in the bank this weekend, adding to a healthy $289 million total so far. Pixar’s latest winner is showing no signs of slowing down just yet.
The big new arrivals meant little change in the rest of the charts, with Grown Ups sinking to fourth and $18.5 million and **Knight And Day **continuing its fall from grace with $10.2 million.
As for the rest of the charts? The Karate Kid slid to sixth with $8 million and** The A-Team** took seventh with $3 million. Get Him to the Greek made $1.1 million in eighth, Shrek Forever After in ninth with $799,000 and the Jonah Hill/John C Reilly/Marisa Tomei starrer Cyrus dragging in an impressive $770,000. It might not sound a lot when compared to the other movies, but when you consider that the latest film from the Duplass brothers is on just 77 screens, it’s quite an achievement…
For the full charts, check out Box Office Mojo.