Early Weekend Box Office

Now with a whole mess of Add Ons.

The turnstile Gods smile on animation.

Disney’s “Cars” spin-off “Planes” should hold well in its second frame after overperforming with north of $22 million last weekend. Also, Universal’s stalwart holdover “Despicable Me 2″ continues to pull down impressive weekend-to-weekend drops entering its seventh frame. The toon already has amassed a whopping $341 million domestically. ...

Of course, there's the "Animation is eating its own with the overcrowding" meme, but it doesn't hold up well. Despicable Me Deux and Monsters University have both performed, leaving only Turbo out in the cold. But come on already. Turbo tracked pretty closely with Planes in terms of box office. And yeah, Planes cost one hell of a lot less, but still in all. If the box office is similar, I don't know why one is a failure and the other a success.

It can't be only the respective budgets, can it?

Add On: Early predictions for weekend winners?

1. The Butler - $26.1 million
2. Kick-Ass 2 - $17.1 million
3. We're the Millers - $14.2 million (-46%)
4. Planes - $13.9 million (-37%)
5. Elysium - $13.1 million (-56%)
-. Jobs - $8.3 million
-. Paranoia - $6.6 million

(Obviously, the early estimates are open to change.)

In the meanwhile, this year's box office has been relatively robust.

Year-to-date figures show 2013 has finally caught up with and passed 2012′s box office numbers, in both gross receipts and ticket sales. Audiences are also showing up at a rate 7% ahead of 2012, and the summer in particular has been an enormous success — up more than 10% over last summer.

Considering the fact last year’s summer touted such heavy-hitters as The Avengers, the final Christopher Nolan Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises, a Spider-Man reboot, and the third Men In Black installment, it’s surprising the industry has managed to actually top that powerful line-up. Last year’s box office tally came in at 6.5% above 2011′s figures, and this year is on course for another 6-7% annual increase. ...

Add On Too: Rentrak rolls out its estimate of the weekend takings:

Domestic Weekend Box Office

1. Lee Daniels' The Butler - The Weinstein Company - $25.0M

2. We're The Millers - Warner Bros. - $17.8M

3. Elysium - Sony - $13.6M

4. Kick-Ass 2 - Universal - $13.6M

5. Planes - Disney - $13.1M

6. Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters - 20th Century Fox - $8.4M

7. Jobs - Open Road - $6.7M

8. 2 Guns - Universal - $5.6M

9. Smurfs 2 - Sony - $4.6M

10. Wolverine, The - 20th Century Fox - $4.4M

11. Conjuring, The - Warner Bros. - $3.9M

12. Despicable Me 2 - Universal - $3.8M

Only two animated features reside in the Top Ten, with DM2 lurking just beneath.