The Weekend Derby Romps Again

Now with cheese-flavored Add On.

The Nikkster bolts from the starting gate:

1. Chris Nolan's Inception for Warner Bros/Legendary Pictures will still be the No. 1 movie for its 2nd weekend in release. It went into today having made $100+M in the U.S. and Canada in just 7 days. ... Inception made a big $14.4M Friday for a Superglue-like hold of 34% compared to a week ago for what's expected to be a $43M weekend and a new cume of $143M.

2. Salt -- Jolie did ... a $13.8M Friday [with an] expected $37M weekend that could climb to $40M if there's a Saturday bump ....

And box office guru has some ideas of its own how the weekend races will go:

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Ramona should not be too much of a threat to Despicable Me's audience so a healthy 35% decline could be in order for the third mission. That would give Universal about $21M for the weekend and a 17-day tally of $158M. Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice didn't impress too many with its high-priced hijinks last weekend. A 45% drop to $8M may result for a disappointing 12-day cume of $42M.

Threequels The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Toy Story 3 continue to climb up the all-time blockbusters list. The vampire saga should fall by half and bring in roughly $6M for $278M to date. Pixar's 3D toon will hold up better with possibly a 40% dip to around $7M. The sum will soar to $377M. ...

Add On: Box Office Mojo supplies us with the preliminary figures:

1) Inception -- $13.2 million

2) Salt -- $12.7 million

3) Despicable Me -- $7.3 million

4) Ramona and Beezus -- $3 million

5) The Sorcerer's Apprentice -- $2.9 million

6) Toy Story 3 -- $2.6 million

Add On Too: Crossing the final wire, animation takes only small hits:

1) Inception -- $143.7 million

2) Salt -- $36.5 million

3) Despicable Me -- $161.7 million

4) The Sorcer's Apprentice -- $42.6 million

5) Toy Story 3 -- $379.5 million

And on we go ...