Boasting the smallest second weekend dropoff of any of this summer's blockbusters, Inception held audience's attention (and maybe they needed to see it a second time to take it all in), and settled in at the top spot, besting the new Angelina Jolie spy flick, Salt.  However, Jolie opened quite well, and proved that she can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the guys when it comes to opening a movie.  She's also Hollywood's only reliable action chick having starred in previous genre hits such as Tomb Raider, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Wanted.

The news wasn't so good for either the other opener, Ramona and Beezus, which debuted way back in sixth place, or many of the holdovers from recent weeks.  The latest flicks from Nicholas Cage, Tom Cruise, and M. Night Shyamalan have become expensive disappointments with Cage and Cruise failing even to break the $100 million mark.  At least Selena Gomez's Ramona only cost $15 million to make.

On the other hand, Toy Story 3 has held on remarkably well in its sixth weekend.  We don't know that it will break the $400 million mark, but at this point, we won't bet against it, either.  Adam Sandler's Grown Ups has also been seeing relatively small week-to-week drops.  If Grown Ups can muster another $24 million at the box office, it will be on par with his 2006 smash, Click, in terms of attendance.  It has already surpassed his 2007 entry, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry in attendance.

This Friday, we have three debuts: Dinner for Schmucks starring Paul Rudd and Steve Carell; the family CGI feature, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore; and Zac Efron's latest, Charlie St. Cloud.  We don't think that Inception can hold on to the top spot for a third week, but it will be interesting to see just how far it will fall.  We're not expecting much from Charlie St. Cloud, not because Zac Efron isn't a good actor, but because he's still in the process of breaking out of his High School Musical fanbase to become accepted by the larger, post-adolescent audience.  If he keeps selecting interesting projects, it will happen for him, but it hasn't happened yet.

As for Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, it's a sequel to Cats & Dogs from 2001.  Nine years is an awful long time to wait to release a second entry in the family market; the kids who saw it then are teenagers now and way too cool to see the follow up.  The first movie didn't perform all that spectacularly at the box office, so we can only assume it did well enough on home video to prompt Warner Bros. to go back to the well and try again.

We're predicting Dinner for Schmucks will open at number one with a box office north of $25 million.  At number two will likely be Inception followed by Kitty Galore, Salt, and Charlie St. Cloud.  If Dinner opens weaker than we expect, and Inception holds well, it may just end up being number one for a third weekend.

 Here are the box office actuals for the weekend of July 23-25, 2010: