No surprises here. Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and The Other Guys were expected to take number one this weekend and they did – earning an estimated $35.6 million from 3,651 locations – knocking Inception down to number two for the first time in four weeks.

There would be a lot more to talk about had The Other Guys failed to open above $30 million. We could say that Ferrell had lost his audience after the debacle of Land of the Lost. Or maybe he was dragged down by Mark Wahlberg (and the debacle of Max Payne). We might even be able to work in something about how The Other Guys suffered in the wake of Kevin Smith’s Cop Out. But, luckily for Sony and the various other parties involved, these past failures remain irrelevant with regard to The Other Guys. For now.

In fact, the team of Adam McKay and Will Ferrell has managed to retain their perfect record with their fourth big screen collaboration – even besting the $30.9 million debut of their last feature, 2008’s Step Brothers. That film ended its run just over the $100 million mark. Talladega Nights was closer to $150 million in 2006. Both films were released at about the same point in late summer, although The Other Guys reportedly cost a bit more to make. Even so, if The Other Guys can avoid a big second week drop (say, the 55% drop that hit Dinner for Schmucks just this week, for example), I think it will be safe to call this another win for team Anchorman.

The reigning champion as regards avoiding a big second week drop (and a big third and fourth week drop, for that matter) is our number two film, Inception. Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster has so far brought in an estimated $227 million - adding another $18.6 million in the past three days alone. That’s a fourth weekend figure that most big films could only hope to realize after two... a film like The Other Guys, for example.

Many films, of course, never reach $18 million even in their debuts… this weekend’s number three movie, for example. Step Up 3D earned an estimated $15.5 million in its first three days. That was from 2,435 locations – 1,826 of which featured the dance sequel in 3D. I’m not a fan of this series so perhaps I’ve been too hard on Step Up 3D. Here’s the good news:

Unlike many recent 3D releases, Step Up 3 was actually shot in 3D. So that’s good, I guess. And although the Step Up price-tag has increased dramatically with each sequel, the series has also managed in both cases to hold on to about 80% of the last films first weekend gross. So that’s something too. No one is ever going to call this is a big hit (especially next to 2010’s other 3D alums) but how often does the third installment of a dance movie avoid going straight to DVD? Just this once, I hope.

Last week, much was made about the box office viability of a certain High School Musical star due to the disappointing start of the drama, Charlie St. Cloud. Personally, I wouldn’t draw too many conclusions about Zac Efron’s future from this one example – except that Charlie St. Cloud was a bad movie with even worse marketing behind it. As evidence, the film fell a giant 62% in its second week and is now destined to drop out of the top ten before clearing $30 million. Here’s hoping that new Nicolas Spark’s movie is a lot better.

Finally, Focus features’ The Kids Are Alright managed to edge Grown Ups out of the top ten this week after expanding its run to 994 theatres. Overall business was down compared to last year when GI Joe and Julie & Julia earned a combined $75 million in their first and second place debuts. Next week three highly anticipated (though highly distinct) movies will try to get 2010 back in the black: Eat, Pray Love, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and The Expendables. We’ll see what happens.

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