Hot August Derby

It's a crowded field, and Matt Damon is winning it.

The Matt Damon sci-fi action movie “Elysium” launched at No. 1 Friday, knocking Jennifer Aniston’s pot comedy “We’re the Millers” into second in a very crowded weekend at the box office.

With its $11.2 million first day, “Elysium” is a looking at a $30 million three-day total. ... Warner Bros.’ “We’re the Millers” brought in $8.5 million Friday and should hit $25 million for the three days. ... “Planes” debuted in third with $8 million on Friday, and the DisneyToon Studios' “Cars” spin-off should land with around $22 million for the three days. ...

“The Smurfs 2,” back for its second week, took in $3 million Friday. That’s off just 44 percent from last week and puts it on track for a $10 million weekend, which would give its a two-week total of roughly $47 million. ...

[T]he weekend Top Ten would be rounded out by “The Conjuring” and “Despicable Me 2” at around $6 million and “Grown-Ups 2” at roughly $4 million.

Here are the totals as compilec by the Nikkster:

. Elysium (MRC/TriStar/Sony) NEW [Runs 3,284] R Friday $11.1M, Weekend $30.0M

2. We’re The Millers (New Line/Warner Bros) Week 1 [Runs 3,260] R Friday $8.5M, Weekend $25.8M, Cume $37.2M

3. Planes 3D (Disney) NEW [Runs 3,709] PG Friday $8.1M, Weekend $23.1M

4. Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters 3D (Fox) Week 1 [Runs 3,031] PG Friday $4.9M, Weekend $15.7M, Cume $24.5M

5. 2 Guns (Emmet-Furla/Universal) Week 2 [Runs 3,028] R Friday $3.4M (-65%), Weekend $11.0M, Cume $48.4M

6. The Smurfs 2 3D (Sony Animation) Week 2 [Runs 3,867] PG Friday $3.1M (-43%), Weekend $10.3M, Cume $47.4M

7. The Wolverine 3D (Fox) Week 3 [Runs 2,867] PG13 Friday $2.4M, Weekend $8.0M, Cume $111.9M

8. The Conjuring (New Line/Warner Bros) Week 4 [Runs 2,650] R Friday $2.1M, Weekend $6.5M, Cume $120.5M

9. Despicable Me 2 3D (Illumination/Universal) Week 6 [Runs 2,395] PG Friday $1.8M, Weekend $6.2M, Cume $338.8M

10. Grown Ups 2 (Columbia/Sony) Week 5 [Runs 2,102] PG13 Friday $1.2M, Weekend $3.8M, Cume $123.9M

The Entertainment press talks about how animation has come back since the weak release of the snail movie. This is true. Planes looks like it will gross $23.1 million on its opening weekend, while Turbo made a paltry $21,312,625. The two pictures were playing on almost the same number of screens: 3,805 for Turbo; 3,709 for Planes. Both received high Cinemascores.

Somebody tell me again about the big surge in cartoons? When audiences want to turn out to a movie, they do. And when they don't, it's that way. The Croods opened with $43 million and change. Despicable Me opened with $83.5 million; Monsters University opened at $84.2 million. Why is this? They were both sequels to popular movies that people really wanted to see.

Add On: Turbo is tracking at number 12, just out of the Big Ten. It looks as though it's collecting $2.2 million this weekend, one notch below Woody Allen's latest, Blue Jasmine ($2.5 million).