DESPICABLE? NOT!

The only thing that could be considered despicable about Despicable Me was the prediction by box-office gurus on Friday that the movie would earn half of what it actually did. The Universal animated feature took in an estimated $60.1 million versus the $30-35 million that forecasters had expected. Meanwhile, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which had been tapped to repeat at No. 1, slid to second place with $33.4 million, fulfilling predictions on its earnings. Third place went to Predators, which also performed better than anyone had expected. It took in $25.3 million. Somewhat surprisingly, given the competition from Despicable Me, Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 3 dipped just 27.3 percent in its fourth weekend, landing in fourth place and bringing its total to $22 million — thereby making it the most successful film in Pixar history, surpassing the previous champ, Finding Nemo, and erasing doubts once and for all about the wisdom of Disney’s 2006 acquisition of the animation studio.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo:

1. Despicable Me, $60.1 million; 2. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, $33.35 million; 3. Predators, $25.3 million; 4. Toy Story 3, $22 million; 5. The Last Airbender, $17.15 million; 6. Grown Ups, $16.4 million; 7. Knight and Day, $7.85 million; 8. The Karate Kid, $5.7 million; 9. The A-Team, $1.8 million; 10. Cyrus, $1.4 million.

UPDATE:
Final results showed the top five films slowing significantly at the box office on Sunday and lining up this way: 1. Despicable Me, $56.40 million; 2. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, $31.71 million; 3. Predators, $24.76 million; 4. Toy Story 3, 21.02 million; 5. The Last Airbender, $16.64 million.