‘Planes’ Lands at No. 3 as Auds Visit ‘Elysium’

Although the overall box office numbers are still not impressive, North American audiences chose to seek out Elysium, Neill Blomkamp’s follow-up to the acclaimed District 9. The sci-fi thriller landed at the top spot at the box office with a $30.5 million weekend.

While Disney was having a fantastic p.r. weekend, showing off its impressive slate of animated and live-action movies at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, the studio’s latest animated feature Planes made a respectable $21.01 million at the domestic box office. Although critics didn’t embrace the pic (it rated a low 24% on rottentomatoes.com), family auds, who associated the film with Pixar’s Cars franchise, seemed to seek out the spinoff, which was actually produced by DisneyToon Studios.

Among the other vfx/animated titles out this past weekend, Fox’s Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters was No. 2 with a $22.8 million domestic take, Sony’s The Smurf 2 landed at No. 6 with an additional $9.3 million (cume is now $46.4 million), while Universal/Illumination’s Despicable Me 2 continues its winning summer streak with an additional $5.2 million and a smashing $337.8 million Stateside cume and a global total of $745.814 million.

Here is a look at the top 10:

1. Elysium – Weekend $30.5 million

2. We’re The Millers – Weekend $25.7 million Cume $37.2 million

3. Planes – Weekend $21 million

4. Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters – Weekend $14.0 million, Cume $22.8 million

5. 2 Guns – Weekend $11.3 million, Cume $48.7 million

6. The Smurfs 2 – Weekend $9.3 million, Cume $46.4 million

7. The Wolverine – Weekend $8.0 million, Cume $112.0 million

8. The Conjuring – Weekend $6.3 million, Cume $120.3 million

9. Despicable Me 2 – Weekend $5.2 million, Cume $337.8 million

10. Grown Ups 2 – Weekend $3.5 million, Cume $123.6 million