Box Office: 'Inception' is no 'Schmuck' as it wins the weekend again

Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page in a scene from "Inception."

Credit: Warner Bros.

"Inception" continues to prove that Chris Nolan may be the next big "brand" filmmaker.  His critically acclaimed thriller overtook surprising competition from "Dinner for Schmucks" to win its third straight weekend at the box office with another $27.5million.  With $193.3 million domestic so far, a massive $250-275 million isn't out of the question.  To have more than one picture pass that mark puts Nolan in some pretty select company.

"Schumucks" didn't have a big jump on Saturday as the Steve Carell and Paul Rudd comedy scored only a reported "B" cinemascore with moviegoers and looks to gross $23.3 million for the three-day.  Carell's "Date Night" found a similar $25 million in April for what turned out to be an impressive $98 million gross. Whether "Schmucks" can manufacture the same positive word of mouth as "Date Night" remains to be seen.

Angelina Jolie's "Salt" dropped to third in its second frame with another $19.3 million and a new cume of $70.8 million so far.  That's pretty solid, but the Sony Pictures release looks like it will end up with no more than Jolie's last action flick, "Wanted," which ended up with $134 million two years ago.

"Despicable Me" is anything but as the 3-D animated comedy found another $15.5 million and a new total of $190 million. The last Universal Pictures release to cross $200 million?  "The Bourne Ultimatum" three years ago.

Among other new releases, "Cats and Dogs 3D: The Revenge of Kitty Galore" scratched a disappointing $12.5 million (even with higher 3-D ticket prices) and after a solid Friday opening, Zac Efron's "Charlie St. Cloud" crashed for an estimated weekend take of $12.1 million.

Next weekend's new releases include Will Ferrell's "The Other Guys," "Step Up 3D" and "Middle Men."

Final box office actuals are released on Monday.

Gregory Ellwood
Editor-in-Chief, Co-Founder

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With over a decade of experience in the movie industry, Ellwood survived working for two major studios and has written for Variety, MSN and the LA Times. A co-founder of HitFix, Ellwood spends his time relaxing hitting 3’s on the basketball court and following his beloved Clippers.