Notwithstanding the best attempts of some to smear Wall-E as being somehow hypocritical or disdainful of consumers, the little robot gave Pixar the third-best opening weekend in its history, behind The Incredibles and Finding Nemo (and roughly tied with Monsters, Inc.). Its $62.5 million take was on par with expectations, though the lack of the usual family film Saturday and Sunday bump suggests that Wall-E attracted an impressive number of kidless Friday night moviegoers. And that bodes well for the weeks to come: the movie is quite sophisticated and not all that toddler-friendly, so word-of-mouth among adults will be key.

Given Wall-E's apparent cross-demographic appeal, one might have expected Wanted to struggle a bit as the weekend's "adult counterprogramming," but nothing doing: at $51.1 million and a strong second place, we may have a new franchise on our hands. The two combined to make this the strongest three-day weekend of the summer at the box-office overall; in fact, to find a higher combined top 12 gross, we have to go back to Memorial Day 2007 and the debut of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

The rest of the chart looks unremarkable. The Love Guru dropped almost 61% to 6th place, prompting the unsurprising conclusion that the Guru Pitka didn't connect with summer audiences. The Incredible Hulk continues to run behind Hulk, ruling out the possibility that it will have the staying power to do appreciably better than the embattled 2004 film. Wall-E gave Kung Fu Panda its first significant hit, dropping it to 4th place. Indiana Jones will break $300 million by the end of Monday, if Sunday's final numbers don't push it past the milestone. And The Happening looks like it will top out around $70 million.

The full numbers after the jump.
1 - Wall-E (Disney) - $62.50 ($15,656) - $62.50
2 - Wanted (Universal) - $51.12 ($16,100) - $51.12
3 - Get Smart (Warner Bros.) - $20.00 ($5,108) - $77.27
4 - Kung Fu Panda (Dreamworks Animation) - $11.75 ($3,200) - $179.33
5 - The Incredible Hulk (Universal) - $9.23 ($2,754) - $115.51
6 - The Love Guru (Paramount) - $5.44 ($1,806) - $25.32
7 - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Paramount) - $5.03 ($1,967) - $299.94
8 - The Happening (Fox) - $3.85 ($1,550) - $59.06
9 - Sex and the City (New Line) - $3.77 ($2,148) - $140.13
10 - You Don't Mess with the Zohan (Sony) - $3.2 ($1,490) - $91.22

Numbers courtesy of the love muffins at Box Office Mojo.

Next weekend sees Will Smith throw his star power into a very crowded marketplace as Hancock makes its July 4th bow. There's also the wide release of Kit Kittredge: An American Girl.