‘Knight and Day’ No Match for ‘Toy Story 3’

Disney's Toy Story 3 continued to roll on Wednesday with another comfortable win at the daily box office. The crowd pleasing computer animated sequel grossed $13.46 million, which was down 11 percent from Tuesday. That represented one of the day's stronger daily holds among wide releases, which is especially impressive given the scope of the film's daily grosses at the moment. Toy Story 3 crossed the $150 million mark yesterday and has now grossed $154.50 million in just six days of release. Compared to other recent summer Pixar releases, Toy Story 3 is running 78 percent ahead of 2009's UP, 79 percent ahead of 2008's WALL-E and 98 percent ahead of 2006's Cars. At this rate, the film's chances of clearing the $400 million domestic mark are already looking very good.

Though it was able to open in second place, Fox's Knight and Day was off to a slower than expected start on Wednesday. The big-budget action comedy starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz grossed $3.81 million on its first day of release. While expectations for Wednesday (and Thursday) weren't very high given the fairly last minute release date change from Friday to Wednesday, the film's start is a poor sign heading into the weekend nonetheless.

Mid-level summer releases typically don't open on Wednesdays, but one of the better comparisons for Knight and Day is 2008's Tropic Thunder. That action comedy grossed a stronger $6.50 million on its first day of release, before going on to gross $36.85 million over its first five days. With Knight and Day opening 41 percent weaker than Tropic Thunder did on its opening day, it will likely have better daily holds over the next few days than Tropic Thunder did. However, unless Knight and Day can pull off a surprisingly strong Friday performance, the film appears to be headed for a lackluster five-day start in the neighborhood of $25 million.

Sony's The Karate Kid fell one spot to finish in third with $2.98 million. The blockbuster remake was down 16 percent from Thursday. That represented a very respectable hold for the day, as most wide releases were down sharply from Tuesday as a result of the continued stranglehold of Toy Story 3 on the rest of the marketplace and from loosing screens and screenings to Knight and Day. The Karate Kid has greatly exceeded expectations with $117.09 million in 13 days and could challenge Knight and Day for third place over the weekend.