Box Office: Leonardo DiCaprio tops Angelina Jolie as 'Inception' stays at No. 1

Angelina Jolie at the premiere of "Salt."

Credit: AP Photo/Matt Sayles

She may have crisscrossed the world and hit Comic-Con in a last minute push to promote "Salt," but Angelina Jolie couldn't overcome the incredible hold of Leonardo DiCaprio's "inception."

The Chris Nolan thriller grossed another $13.3 million on Friday to remain on top of the box office with a new cume of $113.4 million after just eight days.  With an under 40% drop expected for the rest of the weekend, "Inception" should be close to $145-150 million by end of day Sunday.  Not too shabby.  Not too shabby at all.

Jolie isn't necessarily complaining however.  After a shaky start, Sony Pictures found the sweet spot in its marketing campaign for the convoluted thriller and grossed a strong $12.7 million on its opening day.  With better than expected reviews, "Salt" is looking at anywhere from $40-45 million for the weekend which would be an excellent start for the approximately $100 million budgeted action flick.  Now, whether a sequel will be developed will depend on how well it plays overseas.  Still,  it's a strikingly similar result compared to "Wanted" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" which both debuted to $50 million.

The third slot went to "Despicable Me" which no looks like it will pass the $200 million mark following a superb third Friday take of $7.3 million.  By the end of the weekend, the Universal Pictures animated comedy should have over $160 million in the bank and officially be a megahit for a company that really needed one.  

Another newcomer, "Ramona and Beezus," debuted in fourth with a weak $2.9 million.  At best, the Fox and Walden Media family flick could reach $10 million over the 3-day, but its another marketing and distribution question mark after a very weak summer for 20th Century Fox.

Disney's "Toy Story 3" appears to finally be slowing down with another $2.6 million and possibly $10 million for the weekend.  With $372 million so far, the magical $400 mark is only a few weeks away.

Look for a complete rundown of this weekend's box office results tomorrow on HitFix.

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.