It was a three-peat for the final episode in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.
The Dark Knight Rises topped the box office for the third straight weekend, taking in $36 million domestic for a to-date total gross estimated at $354 million. The international gross edged up slightly higher to a total of $378 million for a combined total of $733 million. The movie appears well on its way toward joining the billion-dollar gross club.
The reign of Batman kept the debut of Total Recall in second place with an estimated $26 million domestic gross. The effects-heavy reimagining of the Philip K. Dick story and Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 version earned $6 million overseas for an underwhelming $32 million total.
Kid-friendly sequel Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, based on the popular childen’s graphic novels, opened with a $14 million domestic weekend.
In fourth place was Fox and Blue Sky Animation’s Ice Age: Continental Drift, which earned $8.4 million over its fourth weekend of release to bring its domestic gross total to $131 million. Overseas, the movie continues to be a blockbuster, having grossed $514 million, and giving the movie a worldwide total of $715 million.
Other animated and visual-effects movies still in release include Ted, directed by Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane, which $5.5 million for a $203 million domestic total; $4.3 million for The Amazing Spider-Man, now at $250 million domestic and $677 million worldwide; Disney-Pixar’s Brave, with just under $3 million for the weekend and $223 million domestic and $341 million worldwide; and DreamWorks Animation’s Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, which earned an estimated $540,000 for a domestic total of $210 million and a worldwide tally of $522 million.
The stop-motion animated feature ParaNorman, from Laika and Focus Features, is the next major animated release, due out Aug. 17.
