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For DiCaprio, entering the world of Baz Luhrmann (for a second time) was a good career move, as the actor records his second best opening of his career, behind only Inception’s $62.8 million. For DiCaprio, it follows a strong result from Django Unchained ($421 million worldwide), and puts the performance of J. Edgar ($37 million domestic take) further behind him. For Luhrmann, this is easily his biggest film ever, as Gatsby outdoes most of his previous films in a single weekend. His biggest opener previous to Gatsby was Australia, which opened to $14.8 million, an amount Gatsby did in a single day. In the end, Gatsby will be one of those extremely strong films that never hits number one (Star Trek: Into Darkness, anyone?), and DiCaprio should end up with two of those films in the top 15 ever, as Django Unchained sits as 15th biggest film to never hit number one, with a domestic tally of $162.8 million.

The top ten is top heavy this weekend, meaning the rest of the crop is batch of weak sisters, only existing because there are no other films to push these also-rans out of their place. Third is Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain, and after a weekend when it lost 63% thanks to Tony Stark and friends, it recovers somewhat this weekend. The Wahlberg/Rock feature earned only $5 million in its third weekend and dropped 33% - a much better hold compared to last weekend, but it’s too little too late. Pain & Gain now has a domestic total of $41.6 million against a production budget of $26 million.

Fourth is Tyler Perry Presents Peeples, which stars Craig Robinson and Kerry Washington. This one did much worse than the usual Perry performance, as it took in only $4.9 million this weekend from 2,041 venues. It is DOA and will likely be out of the top ten very shortly, despite very few new films coming out over the next few weekends.

42 drops two spots to fifth despite being in its fifth weekend, and at this rate, could be a top ten film until the first weekend in June. 42 earned another $4.7 million, falling 23%. 42 has managed to ring up $84.7 million at the domestic box office, against a budget of only $40 million. Star Chadwick Boseman will next appear in Draft Day with Kevin Costner; Harrison Ford is back in August in Paranoia.

Sixth goes to Tom Cruise and Oblivion, and based on its domestic box office numbers, audiences are oblivious. Oblivion was another film that got smacked hard by Tony Stark, losing 68% of its audience last weekend. It also bounced back a little this weekend, earning $3.9 million and dropping a better 32% against Gatsby. Better or not, Oblivion is going to fail domestically against its $120 million budget, as it has only a domestic gross so far of $81.7 million. It will be bailed out overseas, though, as the Universal production has taken in over $160 million on foreign shores.

The Croods moves down to seventh, as the audience for this one has likely seen it twice since it has been the only animated feature available for the last eight weekends. This time around, The Croods earned another $3.6 million and fell 14%. It has a total so far of $173.2 million domestically, and another $340 million overseas.

The Big Wedding manages to hang around for a top ten finish. The awful film earned another $2.5 million from some poor, unsuspecting non-readers of this column. It dropped 36% and has a gross so far of only $18.3 million.

Mud is ninth, as the Mathew McConaughey film is having trouble gaining real traction in the marketplace. This weekend, Mud earned $2.4 million from a wider 854 theaters, allowing it to increase by 11%. The film – with its 98% fresh rating – has now pulled in only $8.4 million.

Tenth this weekend goes to Oz the Great and Powerful, which has been hanging around for a couple of months now thanks to poor competition. This weekend looks to be the final hurrah, though, as it made only $802,000 from Friday-to-Sunday, a decline of 62% from last weekend where it held up great. It shed a lot of screens this weekend, so it wasn't a readily available alternative. Its domestic total is $230 million, and it adds over $250 million from international venues. It's a good year to be Disney.

Overall this weekend, thanks to Gatsby and Tony Stark only, the top 12 pulled in $152.7 million. A year ago, Tony Stark was also on top, but in The Avengers, which led the top 12 to a weekend gross of $162.3 million – thanks to a second weekend at $100 million plus. Next weekend we get back to a more traditional blockbuster, as Star Trek: Into Darkness opens and we set up for what should be an awesome Memorial Day weekend.

Top Weekend Box Office for 5/10/13-5/12/13 (Estimates)
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	Iron Man 3		$72,472,000	- 58%	$284,893,000
2	The Great Gatsby	WARNER BROS.	$51,115,000	New	$51,115,000
3	Pain & Gain	PARAMOUNT	$5,000,000	- 33%	$41,608,000
4	Peeples	Lionsgate	$4,850,000	New	$4,850,000
5	42	WARNER BROS.	$4,650,000	- 23%	$84,732,000
6	Oblivion	UNIVERSAL	$3,864,150	- 32%	$81,655,765
7	The Croods	DreamWorks	$3,600,000	- 14%	$173,215,500
8	The Big Wedding	Lions Gate	$2,500,000	- 36%	$18,287,691
9	Mud	Roadside Attractions	$2,400,000	+ 11%	$8,450,000
10	Oz: the Great And Powerful	DISNEY	$802,000	- 62%	$229,985,000
11	Scary Movie v	Weinstein Co.	$706,000	- 51%	$30,644,030
12	Olympus Has Fallen	Filmdistrict	$700,000	- 41%	$96,500,000
	Also Opening/Notables
	No One Lives	Anchor Bay	$45,875	New	$45,875
	Aftershock	Radius0twc	$40,000	New	$40,000
	Stories We Tell	Roadside Attractions	$30,000	New	$30,000
	Venus And Serena	Magnolia	$10,000	New	$10,000
	One Track Heart: the Story of Krishna Das	Zeitgeist	$7,500	New	$9,579
	The Iceman	Millennium	$108,520	+ 23%	$236,049
	Cinco De Mayo: La Batalla	Lionsgate	$38,000	- 55%	$140,369
	Love Is All You Need	Sony Classics	$40,026	+ 9%	$91,012
	Scatter My Ashes At Bergdorf's	Entertainment One	$41,702	+ 5%	$104,059
	What Maise Knew	Millennium	$24,758	+ 15%	$55,910
	Kon0tiki	Weinstein Co.	$83,645	+ 13%	$224,393
	At Any Price	Sony Classics	$55,754	+ 76%	$129,341
	The Company You Keep	Sony Classics	$420,475	- 40%	$4,150,725
	The Place Beyond the Pines	Focus Features	$675,185	- 47%	$19,967,419
	G.i. Joe: Retaliation	PARAMOUNT	$620,000	- 51%	$119,777,000
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

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