After securing the opening-day record for an animated movie on Friday with $41 million, Toy Story 3 finished the weekend with an estimated $109 million – making it the second biggest animated debut of all-time behind Shrek the Third and 2010’s third largest opening overall.

Title

Weekend

Total

1

Toy Story 3

$109,000,000

$109

2

The Karate Kid

$29,000,000

$106.2

3

The A-Team

$13,775,000

$49.7

4

Get Him to the Greek

$6,117,000

$47.8

5

Shrek 4

$5,520,000

$222.9

6

Prince of Persia

$5,273,000

$80.5

7

Killers

$5,100,000

$39.3

8

Jonah Hex

$5,085,000

$5.08

9

Iron Man 2

$2,675,000

$304.7

10

Marmaduke

$2,650,000

$27.8

Playing in 4,028 locations, over half of which were 3D equipped, Toy Story 3 pulled an impressive screen average of just over $27,000 per. And though the toys couldn’t quite topple Shrek 3 as the all-time animated champ, they did significantly improve upon Pixar’s already impressive box office record.

The studio’s previous best was $70.4 million for The Incredibles, with both Finding Nemo and last year’s Up coming in only slightly lower. So aside from becoming only the third animated feature to break $100 million in its first three days, the $109 million of Toy Story 3 represents a giant leap forward for the world’s most consistent studio.

And, unlike most new releases, opening weekend is just the start of the good news for TS3. Pixar is known to command excellent week-to-week holds. After one week Up fell off by just 35% followed by a 30% drop in week three. With the remainder of June clear of both family films and new 3D competition, Toy Story 3 will have legs far into the summer.

After weeks of disappointing titles, I was actually expecting Toy Story to come in a bit higher. The built-in excitement accompanying a movie that is actually, you know, good, could have been a bit more thunderous. It seems that I can thank The Karate Kid for that slight miscalculation.

After posting great mid-week numbers of $5 million and above, last week’s number one film fell off by 47%. Even so, after ten days The Karate Kid is already well over the $100 million mark: a real accomplishment considering that few people expected even half as much from a franchise that had fallen on hard times. The combined strength of Toy Story 3 and The Karate Kid put the box office up by over 30% compared to the same period in 2009. This is also the first week since March that two family films have dominated… a rarity during a season normally devoted to the teenage boy.

The movie that, on paper at least, should have had those males lining up turned out to be an even bigger failure than anticipated. Jonah Hex, the adaptation of the DC C-lister starring Josh Brolin and Megan Fox, pulled in just under $5.1 million from its 2,825 locations for a pathetic per-screen average of $1,800. As most of you know, the film had problems from the start and from this point on it should be fun to watch the assorted parties parse out the blame. My suggestion? Blame Megan Fox. All the cool kids are doing it these days.

Earlier this week Iron Man 2 broke $300 million while Robin Hood somehow managed to squeak past $100 million. But why look back? On Wednesday Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz return in Knight & Day with Adam Sandler and his comedy all-stars of Grown Ups following two days later. Both films are targeting a similar audience so it will be interesting to see how they split the difference. My money’s on Cruise but, then again, the power of the urine-centric TV spot should not be underestimated. It worked for Couples Retreat

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