You see what I did there? It's funny, right? The moon? ECLIPSE? Minions? Giggle?

After a saturating marketing campaign, imagine my surprise when my slight disinterest in DESPICABLE ME turned to nothing but pure love after catching the flick last month. The minions stole my heart. Anges stole my identity. Since then, I've been eagerly awaiting opening day so that everyone else could share in my glee (and even my tears). It looks like I'm no longer alone, as $60.1 million says that America enjoyed the heck out of the animated charmer this weekend. In its opening weekend, the film took in tt hamuch, nearly making back its $69 million budget, and proving that Pixar doesn't hold all the cute cards (though I did cry significantly more in TOY STORY 3 - just ask, well, everyone in the theater who heard me sob).

DESPICABLE ME proved a worthy adversary to THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE, knocking the third film in the franchise out of the top spot after two weeks at number one. With this weekend's haul of $33.4 million, the film has now grossed $237 million, placing it less than $60 million behind NEW MOON's total gross. Looks like ECLIPSE will surprise no one and become the top-grossing TWILIGHT flick soon.

This weekend also saw the opening of PREDATORS, which came in third place with $25.3 million. This places it in second ranking for PREDATOR opening weekends, behind 2004's ALIEN VS. PREDATOR, which opened with $38 million, but only went on to make $80.2 million in gross returns.

In indie news, both the Swedish take on THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE and Sundance favorite THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT opened in limited release this week. GIRL pulled in just under a million in just 110 theaters, while KIDS had the highest per theater average by a mile, making just over half a million dollars in only seven theaters.

What did you see this weekend?

Source Box Office Mojo