‘Despicable Me’ Tops $70 Million

Universal's Despicable Me led the daily box office for a fifth consecutive day on Tuesday. The 3D computer animated film from Universal and Illumination Entertainment grossed $8.15 million for the day, which was up a solid 8 percent from Monday. The highly successful film has grossed $72.07 million through its first five days in theaters, as it continues to outpace expectations in a very big way. Despicable Me should reach the $80 million mark on Thursday and will zoom past the $100 million mark over the weekend. Despicable Me is currently running 8 percent ahead of the pace of last July's Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse remained in second place with $4.51 million. Summit's blockbuster fantasy sequel was up a solid 4 percent over Monday, though it should be noted that most wide releases experienced strong daily holds yesterday. In comparison to last Tuesday Eclipse was down a sizable 57 percent. The two-week domestic total for Eclipse stands at a massive $244.21 million. That ranks the film as the fourth highest grossing release of 2010 thus far and places it 2 percent ahead of the $239.94 million two-week start of last year's The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

Disney's Toy Story 3 held steady in third place with $3.42 million. The computer animated sequel from Pixar was up a healthy 22 percent over Monday and down 42 percent from last Tuesday. Despite the added presence of Despicable Me in the marketplace, Toy Story 3 has continued to hold up well over the past few days. The 26-day gross for Toy Story 3 stands at $345.47 million, leaving the film just $4.54 million away from becoming the first release of 2010 to clear the $350 million mark domestically. Toy Story 3 is set to pass $350 million on Thursday.

Grown Ups continued to hold up well with a $2.41 fourth place performance. Sony's ensemble comedy was up one spot and 11 percent from Monday and down 35 percent from last Tuesday. Grown Ups has grossed a better than expected $115.31 million in 19 days of release and should continue to hold up well with no new comedies entering the marketplace until July 30th when Paramount's Dinner for Schmucks debuts.

Fox's Predators was down one spot and 9 percent to round out the day's top five with $2.36 million. While the Fox release opened in line with expectations this past weekend, it is also falling off especially quickly, which was to be expected given the history of the recent Alien vs. Predator films. Predators has grossed $29.73 million in its first five days, but should take a massive hit this coming weekend, especially with Warner's Inception debuting on Friday.