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This had been a tough summer and year for Universal. The former super-summer studio has failed to post a $100 million winner, and their biggest opener, Bruno, made headlines more for its floppish weekends that followed its opening rather than its debut weekend. Universal has to look back exactly a year for its last $40 million opener, which came as a disappointment in The Mummy: Curse of the Dragon Emperor. On top of that, Universal's biggest upcoming opener, The Wolf Man, with Benicio Del Toro, has been reported to be bumped from November 2009 to February 2010 due to the dreaded reshoots, which never works out well with pre-release word-of-mouth. The rest of Universal's 2009 looks about as bleak as its summer, and more than a few should get their resumes ready.

Second spot goes to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a film that finally had its chance to open on IMAX screens, which featured an opening sequence in 3-D. Potter 6, now in is third weekend, earns $17.7 million and drops 40% after a 62% decline last weekend. This chapter in the series stays exactly even with the previous film, The Order of the Phoenix, this weekend. Phoenix earned $17.7 million in its third frame, and fell 45%. At that point, Phoenix had a running total of $242.4 million, where the Half-Blood Prince is still ahead with $255.5 million. I'm still looking for Half-Blood Prince to finish with about $290 million.

Finishing third is last weekend's champ, G-Force, and it doesn't hold up all that well considering it's a family film and 3-D. G-Force, Disney's latest parent torture trap, earned $17.1 million and drops 46% from last weekend. The Disney flick has now earned $66.5 million, and has an outside shot at $100 million.

Fourth goes to the Ugly Truth, which out-opened Funny People with a $27.6 million debut in the last frame. That's where the good news ends for this comedy, as the Katherine Heigl flick fell a nasty-for-romantic-comedy 53%, as it earned $13 million. Obviously, moviegoers were put off by this one as much as critics were, and Heigl's charming personality on Letterman this week may have hurt totals as well (I think of it as good news). The $40 million film has now earned $54.5 million.

Opening in fifth is Aliens in the Attic, a title I thought would open outside of the top ten this weekend. Somehow this one opened to $7.8 million from 3,106 venues (Fox knew this was a one-weekend wonder with that venue count), and it had an average of $2.511. Aliens must have been buyoed by the massive amounts of kiddie fare that has rolled through cinemas this summer, as I have thankfully not been privy to a single TV ad. Somehow it worked, but I think this will be in the $2.99 bin at Walmart in no time.

Horror flick Orphan falls to sixth spot after a soft opening in fourth last weekend at $12.9 million. The Warner Bros. release managed to keep its nose above a 50% drop (which is good for horror, regardless of opening) as Orphan took in $7.3 million and dropped 44%. The small film with a good marketing campaign has now earned $26.8 million and looks to finish with about $45 million.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs continues its fall after those damn guinea pigs took over all of the 3-D venues that it had. Dawn of the Dinos earned $5.3 million and dropped another 37% after losing 52% last weekend. I don't think Fox will mind too much, as their $90 million film has now earned $181.8 million domestically, and over $500 million overseas.

The Hangover lands in eighth, as the run is slowing for the summer's biggest comedy. The Hangover earned $5.1 million in its ninth frame, and still manages a good hold as it falls 21%. The film that made Todd Phillips a very wealthy man has now earned $255.8 million, as this one crossed the $250 million mark on Thursday, its 58th day of release.

That puts The Proposal in eighth place. The Sandra Bullock starrer had another good hold this weekend, as it earned $4.8 million and dropped 24%. This one has now earned $148.9 million against a budget of only $40 million.

In tenth, we have Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, as the Michael Bay flick descends down the top ten. Transformers earned $4.6 million this weekend, and fell 43% (maybe folks are wising up). Revenge of the Fallen has now earned $388.1 million and will finish right around $400 million.

Overall, things are not great when comparing the year over year box office. A year ago, The Dark Knight was on top for its third cosecutive frame, and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor opened to over $40 million. The box office was quite healthy, pulling down a top 12 total of $144.7 million. This weekend, with the Judd Apatow miss, the box office top 12 took in only $112.5 million. Next weekend, Universal tries its luck again with A Perfect Getaway (looks good, but what a horrible title), Julie & Julia opens with Meryl Streep, and G.I. Joe rolls onto 3,500 screens.

Top Weekend Box Office for 7/31/09-8/2/09 (Actuals)
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross	Actual Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	Funny People	Universal	$23,439,565	$22,657,780	New	$22,657,780
2	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	Warner Bros.	$17,700,000	$17,909,385	- 39.2%	$255,672,245
3	G-Force	Walt Disney Pictures	$17,058,000	$17,515,489	- 44.8%	$66,918,912
4	The Ugly Truth	Columbia Pictures (Sony)	$13,000,000	$13,187,433	- 52.2%	$54,668,841
5	Aliens in the Attic	Twentieth Century Fox	$7,800,000	$8,008,423	New	$8,008,423
6	Orphan	Warner Bros. Pictures	$7,250,000	$7,525,419	- 41.5%	$27,066,812
7	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs	Twentieth Century Fox	$5,300,000	$5,526,015	- 34.3%	$182,068,804
8	The Hangover	Warner Bros. Pictures	$5,080,000	$5,194,475	- 19.6%	$255,890,892
9	The Proposal	Touchstone Pictures	$4,848,000	$4,931,064	- 22.7%	$148,964,741
10	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	DreamWorks Pictures	$4,600,000	$4,688,329	- 42.3%	$388,189,320
11	The Collector	Freestyle	$3,625,200	$3,576,296	New	$3,576,296
12	(500) Days of Summer	Fox Searchlight	$2,750,000	$2,776,891	+ 69.8%	$6,847,506
	Also Opening/Notables
	Adam	Fox Searchlight	$66,265	$68,377	New	$96,888
	The Cove	Roadside Attractions	N/A	$57,640	New	$57,640
	Thirst	Focus	$55,173	$55,889	New	$55,889
	If i Die Tonight	Indican	N/A	$9,646	New	$9,646
	Bruno	Universal	$870,255	$885,210	- 68.8%	$59,097,200
	Public Enemies	Universal Pictures	$2,446,200	$2,527,310	- 41.9%	$93,199,665
	The Hurt Locker	Summit Entertainment	$1,911,000	$1,909,170	+ 32.7%	$6,755,335
	Up	Walt Disney Pictures	$1,135,000	$1,174,631	- 30.4%	$286,053,296
Click here for all weekend data
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

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