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So, you know your $85 million film doesn't have much of a shot at recouping its budget. Why write the check to get it done? Same answer as all the rest of the questionable releases this summer: INTERNATIONAL GROSSES. The first Cats & Dogs, before it was cool to do so, ran up the overseas take to $107 million, clearing the century mark where the domestic take didn't - it topped out at $93 million. I expect the same thing to happen again, and join films like Robin Hood, The A-Team, Prince of Persia and Knight and Day, which got bailed out overseas. The Revenge of Kitty Galore will be lucky to earn $50 million at the US box office, but the $100 million it earns overseas will prop it up financially.

Charlie St. Cloud – with that dreamboat Zac Efron – barf – manages a sixth place finish before it goes poof into obscurity. Charlie took in $12.1 million from 2,718 venues, giving it an average of $4,465. How long will teen girls continue to prop up this guy's movie career? This one cost Universal about $45 million to make, a number I doubt it will see from North America theatres, but again Efron is just as popular overseas, so Universal should make out okay with this one, despite their film being only 24% fresh at RottenTomatoes.

Seventh spot goes to Toy Story 3, as the Pixar juggernaut begins to slow down a bit. Toy Story 3 earned $5 million in its seventh great weekend, and was off 44% compared to last weekend, as 3D screens go to more to Despicable Me and the Cats and Dogs sequel. Still, Toy Story 3 has now earned $389.7 million, and should make it to $400 million, even if takes a few more weekends to do it.

Eighth is Grown Ups, the Adam Sandler (and friends) comedy that has shown some serious legs. Grown Ups took in another $4.5 million, off a bigger 39% due to Dinner for Schmucks providing comedy competition. Even so, Grown Ups has now earned $150.7 million, and is closing in on Sandler's biggest film since Big Daddy, The Longest Yard, which took in $158 million.

Ninth goes to Nic Cage and The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the big Disney miss of the summer. Moving way down from fourth last weekend, the $150 million Disney flick took in $4.3 million this weekend, giving it a plunge of 55%. The Sorcerer's Apprentice is going to have to be huge overseas if Disney has any chance of a return on this one, as the domestic take so far equals only $51.9 million.

Finally in tenth is The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which hangs around for one last hurrah. The sparkly vampire movie brought in yet another $4 million, falling 45% from last weekend. Its total now sits at $288.1 million, putting it just $8 million short of where the previous film in the series, New Moon finished. It's going to probably slightly surpass that total, which will probably come as a surprise to people who closely watched the film's behavior during its opening five days

Overall this weekend, the box office was able to stay ahead of last year thanks to six films earning more than $10 million. A year ago, Adam Sandler opened Funny People to a disappointing $22.7 million, which led the top 12 to a very low $113.5 million. This year, the top 12 drew $135.2 million. Next weekend brings another comedy, The Other Guys, as Will Ferrell tries to remove Land of the Lost from our collective memories, and the dance sequel Step Up 3-D opens, and no, I don't know why.

Top Weekend Box Office for 7/30/10-8/1/10 (Actuals)
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross	Actual Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	Inception	Warner Bros. Pictures	$27,520,000	$27,485,245	- 35.7%	$193,313,741
2	Dinner for Schmucks	Paramount Pictures	$23,300,000	$23,527,839	New	$23,527,839
3	Salt	Columbia Pictures (Sony)	$19,250,000	$19,471,355	- 45.9%	$71,033,711
4	Despicable Me	Universal Pictures	$15,542,630	$15,524,230	- 34.5%	$190,330,425
5	Charlie St. Cloud	Universal Pictures	$12,135,870	$12,381,585	New	$12,381,585
6	Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore	Warner Bros. Pictures	$12,525,000	$12,279,363	New	$12,279,363
7	Toy Story 3	Walt Disney Pictures	$5,035,000	$5,122,907	- 42.6%	$389,761,491
8	Grown Ups	Columbia Pictures (Sony)	$4,500,000	$4,548,144	- 38.8%	$150,761,385
9	The Sorcerer's Apprentice	Walt Disney Pictures	$4,320,000	$4,465,524	- 53.7%	$52,026,528
10	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	Summit Entertainment	$3,965,000	$4,014,953	- 44.1%	$288,199,907
11	Ramona and Beezus	20th Century Fox	$3,650,000	$3,710,990	- 52.5%	$16,375,681
12	The Kids Are All Right	Focus Features	$3,463,880	$3,525,585	+ 35.9%	$9,636,508
	Also Opening/Notables
	Get Low		$90,954	$90,954	New	$90,954
	The Concert	Weinstein Co.	$20,121	$20,121	New	$20,121
	The Extra Man		N/A	$18,861	New	$18,861
	Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist, Rebel	Phase 4/vitagraph	$10,010	$11,145	New	$11,145
	Smash His Camera	Magnolia	N/A	$2,367	New	$2,367
	Countdown To Zero	Magnolia	$115,000	$114,296	+177%	$167,712
	Jean-Michael Basquiat: The Radiant Child	Arthouse	$15,874	$17,226	-1%	$59,922
	Predators	20th Century Fox	$1,100,000	$1,093,290	- 65.0%	$49,491,249
	The Girl Who Played With Fire	Music Box	$500,000	$542,670	-4%	$3,770,754
	The Last Airbender	Paramount Pictures	$1,759,000	$1,815,170	- 57.0%	$127,293,447
	Knight and Day	20th Century Fox	$710,000	$700,791	- 58.6%	$74,185,643
	Cyrus	Fox Searchlight Pictures	$216,000	$220,341	- 68.9%	$6,904,997
Click here for all weekend data
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

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