Despicable Dominates Friday

Well, it seems like it was only poor 'ol S.T. and me who had no clue what the heck Despicable Me was. Clued-in audiences have responded in a big way to Steve Carell who plays...a guy...who kind of looks like Uncle Fester and he's got these little yellow...homunculi? slaves? widgets? and then something happens with kids in 3D. I dunno. But everyone else is eating it up! It made more than $22 million yesterday which may lead to a surprisingly huge $55 million-plus weekend. Meanwhile the Most Vapid Love Triangle in Cinematic History pulled their chaste love train into second place as Eclipse added about $11.5 million last night to their coffers. Predators generated about $11 million on its opening night, which may not sound like a lot until you realize that executive producer Robert Rodriguez makes things on the crazy-cheap and the budget for this one was like 78 bucks and some buttons that Rodriguez found in his ashtray. The inimitable Toy Story 3 and the incompetent Last Airbender made up numbers 4 and 5, respectively. Check out the full numbers after the jump.

1. DESPICABLE ME: $22,000,000 (new)

2. THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE: $11,500,000 ($215,000,000)

3. PREDATORS: $11,000,000 (new)

4. TOY STORY 3: $7,300,000 ($325,000,000)

5. THE LAST AIRBENDER: $5,300,000 ($88,000,000)

[via Deadline]