Warner Bros’ dream thriller, Inception, extracted $60.4 million in its opening weekend, while Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was a bit of a nightmare with just $17.4 million.
The 2D mindbender was a gamble for WB, who had to rely on the bankability of its star-studded cast and the good name of writer/director Christopher Nolan rather than the brand name recognition of, say, Batman. It was a tough sell to audiences too, a multi-layered crime drama navigating a rabbit hole of dreamscapes that could easily fly right over their heads.
But a $3 million midnight debut and a strong Friday helped it to an easy first place finish at the high end of expectations. The opening marks the biggest in Leonardo DiCaprio’s career, topping February’s Shutter Island. An amazing 12% came from 197 IMAX screens, the best ever for a 2D film, according to Deadline.
Reviews were solid (84% on RottenTomatoes) with most negative critics complaining about the clinical, sexless nature of Nolan’s dream worlds. It should be interesting to see how the second weekend fares as word of mouth spreads to the more skeptical ranks.
On the flip side, the Nicolas Cage-led magic movie was a disappointment in third. Even a desperate Wednesday opening couldn’t salvage the pic, which has only made $24.5 million total in five days on a production budget of $150M. That’s two flops in a row for super-producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who oversaw the live-action rendering and eventual domestic disaster of Prince of Persia in May (the video game adaptation played better overseas).
Squeezed in between was the second weekend for Universal’s Despicable Me, which added another $32.7 million. The animated family flick has been such a huge success, the studio is already working on a sequel and a few Minion-based short films.
Despite a 57% drop in its third weekend, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is gaining quickly on New Moon. It stands at roughly $265 million total in the States with another $30M or so to pass its predecessor.
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