The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and its stars Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson cast a shadow on the box office over the four-day holiday weekend with an estimated $82.5 million from Friday through Monday, working out to an average of more than $20 million per day. The third film in the Twilight series has now grossed roughly $175 million through its first six days in theaters and should reach the $250 million mark by the time its domestic box office run comes to a close.
Coming in second and shocking just about everyone after a tidal wave of poor reviews was M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender with $53.2 million. Whether this film will truly be the last for the Airbender and his friends will probably depend on international business based on its $150 million plus budget and supposed marketing costs that push the total over $200 million. A $70 million gross since its midnight opening is a lot better than anyone expected.
Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 3 brought in $42.2 million from Friday through Monday to bring its overall box office business to $301 million. The all-time Pixar record held by Finding Nemo with $340 million should fall later this week.
The complete 4-day July 4 weekend box office estimates in millions are as follows:
- 1. Twilight Eclipse – $82.5m ($175.3m total)
- 2 The Last Airbender – $53.2m ($70.5m total)
- 3 Toy Story 3 – $42.2m ($301.1m total)
- 4 Grown Ups – $26.5m ($85.1m total)
- 5 Knight & Day – $14.0m ($49.3m total)
- 6 The Karate Kid – $11.5m ($155m total)
- 7 The A-Team – $4.3m ($70.4m total)
- 8 Get Him to the Greek $1.7 m ($57.9m total)
- 9 Shrek Forever After – $1.3m ($232.6m total)
- 10 Cyrus – $1.0m ($1.7m total)
Check back later today for our interactive Weekend Box Office Prophet Game that allows you to predict next weekend’s box office totals for a chance at Blu-ray prizes.
