Weekend Box Office Aug. 9-11: 'Elysium' Comes Out on Top, 'We're the Millers' Not Far Behind

This weekend turned out to be just about as competitive as commentators expected it to be, with the top three wide releases—each of them aimed at a very different audience—battled for the lead in ticket sales. Matt Damon's "Elysium" won the race, but its weekend gross fell significantly below expectations. Movie-goers' taste for big action flicks this summer remains weak, and a raunchy comedy and an animated kids' movie were worthy competitors for "Elysium."

A big-budget sci-fi action pic from the director of "District 9," "Elysium" took in an estimated $30.4 million over the weekend, which is a good 15% less than its studio hoped it would take. "District 9," by comparison, took in $37.4 million in its first weekend. The production budget for "Elysium" was about $115 million, so the film will have to perform well over the long run to make it into the black.

Second place for the weekend went to "We're the Millers," the R-rated comedy starring Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston. The movie took in $26.5 million over the weekend, and when that amount's added to the tickets sold since the movie opened on Tuesday night, the film's total gross hits $38 million for the 5-day period. Given that its production budget was $37 million, "We're the Millers" looks like the week's big winner.

Not nearly as strong, but not a disastrous underperformer either, is Disney's "Planes," the animated kids' movie that was originally intended as a direct-to-video release. "Planes" took in $22.5 million over the weekend; that's not a particularly impressive opening for an animated Disney film, but the relatively low budget ($50 million) of "Planes" makes its performance seem not so bad.

The final wide release of the week, "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" had an unspectacular weekend, with $14.6 million in ticket sales, and its 5-day total stands at $23.4 million. The film's production budget was $90 million, so it, too has some significant ground to make up.