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Bruckheimer has frequently had the Midas touch when it comes to spinning single films into big hits - Pirates of the Caribbean, Bad Boys, Armageddon, The Rock and Crimson Tide were all made under his banner. Recently, though, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time had only a so-so performance, opening to $30.1 million and accumulating under $90 million to date. The downward trend continues with The Sorcerer's Apprentice, as it opens with $17.3 million over three days and $24.5 million since its debut on Wednesday. Considering that the film had a $150 million budget, this first weekend is...lacking.

What went wrong here? Although the movie looked fun enough, there wasn't really a great hook to draw people into theaters to see it. Cage can attract moviegoers when he's in the right role, but he simply looked ridiculous here. And despite the fact that Baruchel is likable enough, he's not a draw. Had Shia LaBeouf been in the same role, we might be singing a different tune today. Walt Disney Pictures is going to be quite disappointed in The Sorcerer's Apprentice's debut, and may think twice before they attempt to mine their own library for ideas. Oh, wait. Alice in Wonderland made a boatload of money. Never mind. Bring on Tim Burton's Sleeping Beauty.

Next up in fourth place is The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which is back into freefall after evening out somewhat last weekend. Eclipse dropped 57% to $13.5 million, and has a running total so far of $264.9 million. Even so, it is still trending ahead of where The Twilight Saga: New Moon was after 19 days. That film had earned $255.4 million in the same amount of time, though there is admittedly a difference in calendar configuration for the two films. It will have a bit of work to do to maintain that lead in the coming weeks, since New Moon did show some better holds once it got into the Christmas season.

Toy Story 3 finishes in fifth place, not too far behind Eclipse. The current highest grosser of 2010 (and of all Pixar films to date) earned an additional $11.7 million, falling 44% from last week (one of the stronger holds in the top ten, actually). Thus far, the glorious finish to the Toy Story series has taken in $362.7 million domestically, and is just getting started overseas.

Sixth and seventh place go to Grown Ups and The Last Airbender, the goofy family film from Adam Sandler and M. Night Shyamalan's latest critical bomb. Grown Ups has the best hold in the top ten, dropping 37% to $10 million. The critically reviled but basically harmless film has earned $129.3 million so far, which means that Grown Ups has now passed Sandler's 50 First Dates and has Click's box office total in its sights. The Last Airbender has a better hold than last week, but still falls 55% to $7.5 million. The Paramount film has a total so far of $114.8 million, which is more than seemed likely when reviews destroyed it.

Rounding out the top ten are Predators, Knight and Day and The Karate Kid. After opening solidly last weekend, Predators takes a precipitous drop in this frame. The sequel/reboot from producer Robert Rodriguez earned $6.8 million and fell a drastic 73%. The total so far for Predators is $40.1 million, which is enough to match its budget. Ninth goes to Knight and Day, which drops 52% to $3.7 million. The Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz action-romance has now earned $69.2 million. And finally, The Karate Kid takes the ten spot, bringing in an additional $2.2 million and falling 59%. The remake of the beloved '80s film is up to $169.2 domestically. If you're wondering, this amount is good enough to beat the original, even when adjusted for inflation.

Overall, the box office is up nicely versus last year, when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince debuted. This year, the top 12 grossed $168 million, 10% more than 2009's top 12 of $152.1 million. Next weekend brings the adult-targeted Salt, starring Angelina Jolie, and the kid-friendly Ramona and Beezus, featuring one of the Disney Channel stars.

Top Weekend Box Office for 7/16/10-7/18/10 (Actuals)
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross	Actual Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	Inception	Warner Bros. Pictures	$60,400,000	$62,785,337	New	$62,785,337
2	Despicable Me	Universal Pictures	$32,734,350	$32,803,660	- 41.8%	$118,434,555
3	The Sorcerer's Apprentice	Walt Disney Pictures	$17,373,000	$17,619,622	New	$24,708,059
4	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	Summit Entertainment	$13,497,000	$13,420,480	- 57.7%	$264,791,897
5	Toy Story 3	Walt Disney Pictures	$11,742,000	$11,998,276	- 42.9%	$362,965,378
6	Grown Ups	Columbia Pictures (Sony)	$10,000,000	$9,911,016	- 37.3%	$129,165,357
7	The Last Airbender	Paramount Pictures	$7,450,000	$7,755,153	- 53.4%	$115,138,607
8	Predators	20th Century Fox	$6,800,000	$7,016,502	- 71.7%	$40,300,543
9	Knight and Day	20th Century Fox	$3,700,000	$3,608,021	- 53.3%	$69,117,400
10	The Karate Kid	Columbia Pictures (Sony)	$2,200,000	$2,288,707	- 57.3%	$169,290,675
11	Cyrus	Fox Searchlight Pictures	$1,075,000	$1,093,313	- 14.6%	$5,084,186
12	The Kids Are All Right	Focus Features	$1,027,356	$1,064,359	+116.3%	$1,813,866
	Also Opening/Notables
	Standing Ovation	Rocky Mountain Pictures	$361,875	$343,125	New	$343,125
	Kisses	Oscilloscope	$14,620	$15,485	New	$15,485
	Vahalla Rising	IFC Films	N/A	$7,905	New	$7,905
	Alamar	Film Movement	N/A	$7,668	New	$9,640
	Henri-georges Clouzot's Inferno	Flicker Alley	N/A	$3,981	New	$3,981
	The Girl Who Played With Fire	Music Box	$662,379	$662,379	-27%	$2,001,137
	Grease Sing-a-long	Paramount	$90,000	$87,836	+45%	$225,763
	I Am Love	Magnolia	$390,000	$415,112	-17%	$2,662,051
	The A-Team	20th Century Fox	$470,000	$461,023	- 73.7%	$75,207,206
	Winter's Bone	Roadside Attractions	$350,000	$347,380	-24%	$3,064,052
Click here for all weekend data
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

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