Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi/thriller Inception remained the top movie at the North American box office on Monday, July 19, according to Box Office Mojo.
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, and Michael Caine, Inception had a solid per-theater average of $2,686.
Inception should be crossing the $100m milestone either on Thursday or Friday.
At no. 2, Despicable Me, featuring the voices of Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Julie Andrews, and others, took in $4.88m.
The no. 3 movie was Jon Turteltaub’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, starring Nicolas Cage and Jay Baruchel, with a not-at-all-good $2.14m on Day 6. The per-theater average of this Jerry Bruckheimer/Disney release was a paltry $612.
On Day 20, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner’s The Twilight Saga: Eclipse grossed $2.03m in fourth place. (For comparison’s sake: on Day 20, Chris Weitz’s The Twilight Saga: New Moon collected only $905k last fall.)
At no. 5, Lee Unkrich’s Toy Story 3, featuring the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Joan Cusack, brought in $1.89m.
Adam Sandler, David Spade, Chris Rock, Kevin James, and Rob Schneider’s widely panned comedy Grown Ups earned $1.42m at no. 6.
At no. 7, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, starring Noah Ringer, Dev Patel, Jackson Rathbone, Nicola Peltz, and Shaun Toub, pulled in $1.04m. One more slide, and The Last Airbender will fall below the $1m-per-day mark.
Next in line was Nimród Antal’s Predators, starring Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, and Laurence Fishburne, with $919k — below the $1m-per-day mark on Day 11.
Rounding out the top twelve were Tom Cruise’s Knight and Day with $445k, Jackie Chan’s The Karate Kid with $324k, Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass‘ Cyrus with $127k, Julianne Moore’s The Kids Are All Right with $117k.
Among the top twelve movies, The Kids Are All Right had the highest per-theater average, $3,099 — though nothing like the $9,000+ it averaged last week.
Cyrus‘ per-theater average was down to $285, which probably means its expansion will not get much wider.
The Karate Kid had the lowest average, $212.
Also among the top twelve, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse had the smallest Sunday-to-Monday attendance drop, -46.7%, followed by Inception with -47%.
Surprisingly, considering that both are aimed at adults, The Kids Are All Right had the steepest drop-off rate, -65.9%, followed by Cyrus with -61.6%.
Photo: Inception (Stephen Vaughan / Warner Bros.)