Guinea Pigs Take Down Harry Potter

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.

Walt Disney Pictures’ G-Force, producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s first 3-D film, debuted in the top spot at the domestic box office with an estimated $32.2 million from 3,697 theaters. The comedy adventure, about highly trained guinea pigs, was directed by visual effects guru Hoyt Yeatman and stars Bill Nighy, Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis, Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Jon Favreau, Penelope Cruz, Steve Buscemi, Tracy Morgan and Kelli Garner. It averaged $8,697 per theater for the three days.

Warner Bros. Pictures’ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince dropped to second and lost a hefty 61.5% in ticket sales its second weekend, adding $30 million for a 12-day total of $221.8 million domestically. That’s $14 million ahead of what the fifth installment Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix had made the same amount of days. “Half-Blood Prince” will start showing on 166 IMAX theaters this week, which “Order of the Phoenix” did from the start. Internationally, the sixth installment easily remained in first place with $84.4 million. The film’s overseas total is $405.3 million and worldwide take is $627.2 million, making it the 39th biggest-grossing title worldwide already.

Sony’s new battle-of-the-sexes comedy The Ugly Truth opened to $27 million in third place. Starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler, the film played in 2,882 theaters and averaged $9,368 per site. It cost about $38 million to make.

Warner Bros.’ new horror-thriller Orphan debuted in fourth place with $12.8 million from 2,750 theaters. The movie stars Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard and Isabelle Fuhrman.

20th Century Fox’s Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs rounded out the top five, earning $8.2 million in its fourth weekend. The threequel has brought in $171.3 million domestically so far. Overseas, “Dawn of the Dinosaurs” took second with $40.6 million. The film is the top earner internationally this year with $505.4 million.

In sixth, Paramount/DreamWorks’ Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen added another $8 million in its fifth week to push its domestic total to $379.1 million. The Michael Bay-directed sequel is now the 10th-highest grossing film of all time domestically, surpassing 2003’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which made $377 million. “Revenge of the Fallen” earned $7.5 million internationally this weekend, pushing its foreign total to $413.2 million. The film’s worldwide box office total is $792.3 million.

Fifth on the weekend was DreamWorks/Paramount’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” which grossed $7.5 million from 6,891 spots in 63 territories. The sequel’s foreign cume is at $413.2 million, compared with the $389 million grossed by the 2007 original during its entire foreign run.

Meanwhile, The Hangover and The Proposal continue to do well, both making about $6.4 million. The former has reached $247 million after eight weeks, while the latter is up to $140 million after six weeks.

Click here for the full box office results of the top 12 films.

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