Wiki News/'iCarly: The Movie' and 'Dinner for Schmucks' boasts strong Friday; 'Charlie St. Cloud' lands in sixth; 'Cats and Dogs' disappoints

iCarly: The Movie opened Friday night in the $19 million range, while Dinner for Schmucks opened Friday night in the $8 million range, giving Inception, the number one film for the past two weekends, a real race for the top spot. iCarly: The Movie will get it's three-day total of $50 million by the end of the weekend. The other two wide releases didn’t perform as well, though a $6 million Friday for Zac Efron’s Charlie St. Cloud will likely give the teen weepie a $15 million bow for the weekend. In contrast, the weak Friday of around $4 million for Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore could mean the live-action CG-fest may only gross $13 million for the weekend, far lower than the $20 million predicted. That may change if families come out strong today, but original estimates aren’t predicting much of a jump for the PG-rated movie.

Holdovers dominated much of the business on Friday. Inception grossed another $8 million for a weekend that could hit anywhere between $24 and $27 million. Salt took in close to $6 million on Friday for a weekend that could translate into $19 million, and perhaps a third place finish. Despicable Me continues to astound. Not only did its Friday take of close to $5 million out-gross the new release of Cats and Dogs, but if it holds as predicted, the three-day take would mark only a 36 percent drop off in its fourth weekend in release. Come back tomorrow for more official results.