This weekend’s box office numbers were understandably delayed out of respect for the victims of last week’s Colorado shooting. However now they’ve been released, with The Dark Knight Rises taking a massive $160 million, the third biggest opening weekend ever after The Avengers and Deathly Hallows Part 2, and the biggest ever for a 2D release.
Many suspect the film’s gross was slightly supressed due to the shooting, as most had expected it to take between $170 and $180 million. Even so, most people refused to be put off by the horrific acts just outside Denver.
The Dark Knight Rises was the only new release in the top 10, with most of the other movies slipping down a place. Some suspect it was family films more than Batman that were affected by the massacre, with parents keeping children out of the multiplxes. Ice Age 4 dropped far more than expected, 56% off from last weekend.
Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of July 20th-22nd.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | The Dark Knight Rises | $160.8 | $160.8 |
| 2 | Ice Age: Continental Drift | $20.4 | $88.8 |
| 3 | The Amazing Spider-man | $10.8 | $228.6 |
| 4 | Ted | $10.0 | $180.4 |
| 5 | Brave | $6.0 | $208.7 |
| 6 | Magic Mike | $4.2 | $101.9 |
| 7 | Savages | $3.3 | $40.0 |
| 8 | Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection | $2.2 | $60.2 |
| 9 | Moonrise Kingdom | $1.8 | $36.0 |
| 10 | To Rome With Love | $1.4 | $11.1 |
Although Sony might have been worried their reboot of Spider-man might not work, they can rest easy, as while they’d predicted it would do about $120 in its first six days, it actually took $140 million. That’s behind the opening haul of any of Sam Raimi’s Spider-man movies, but comes close to the first film’s take of $144 million. It’s no doubt a good start though, especially as around the world it added another $200 million, so its global box office now stands at a very healthy $341 million.
It was a good weekend for R-rated movies at the US box office, with both Ted and Magic Mike beating out predictions with great opening weekend numbers. Seth MacFarlane’s feature film directorial debut, Ted, came out on top with a superb $54.1 million, the highest number ever for an original R-rated comedy (although behind The Hangover II and Sex And the City if you count established comedy franchises). People obviously liked the idea of a foul-mouthed, pot-smoking teddy bear.