These are official the Dogs Days of Summer, but that’s not stopping people going to the movies.

Neill
Blomkamp’s sci-fi film Elysium,
as expected, was No.1 with an O.K. $30
million, less than the $37 million
his previous film, District 9, opened
with in 2009, which means Elysium most likely won’t make back it’s reported $115 million production budget domestically.

But, no doubt, the film will play extremely well overseas
(it was basically made for the international market anyway) and will be a huge
hit for Sony, which hasn’t had a good summer season this year.

The raunchy comedy We’re
the Millers came in a solid second, adding to its totals since its Weds
opening, and looks to be a solid hit for Warners, despite predictions by some so-called
box office experts last week that the film would tank.

Disney’s
cheap Cars rip-off Planes, which was originally intended as
a straight-to-DVD movie, until Disney had a change of strategy a few months ago, did well, coming in third.

And that Percy Jackson
sequel that no one asked for (I don’t remember the first one. Was there one?) came
in fourth, with a dismal $14.6 million
 which guarantees no third Percy Jackson sequel.

As for Fruitvale Station, it came in this week at No. 13
with $1,443,000, for a total to date
of $13,491,000.