Ferrell, Heder ice competition with $33 million 'Blades' debut

LOS ANGELES -- Stars-on-ice Will Ferrell and Jon Heder took the box office gold for the weekend.

Paramount and DreamWorks' "Blades of Glory," with Ferrell and Heder playing figure-skating rivals who become the sport's first men's pair, debuted as the No. 1 movie with $33 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Disney's animated adventure "Meet the Robinsons," about the time-traveling journey of a brilliant but lonely orphan, debuted in second place with $25.1 million.

The previous weekend's top movie -- the Warner Bros. animated tale "TMNT," a revival of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" franchise -- slipped to fourth place with $9.2 million, down a steep 62 percent from its $24.3 million debut. "TMNT" raised its 10-day total to $38.4 million.

After a monthlong surge, the overall box office declined. The top 12 movies took in $115 million, down 13 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Ice Age: The Meltdown" opened with $68 million.

"This is still a good weekend, a pretty healthy one-two punch with 'Blades of Glory' and 'Meet the Robinsons' at the top," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

Movie attendance is up 4 percent so far this year, Dergarabedian said.

Teaming with "Napoleon Dynamite" star Heder on "Blades of Glory," Ferrell scored the second-best opening of his career, behind last summer's "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," which took in $47 million in its first weekend.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released today.

1. "Blades of Glory," $33 million.

2. "Meet the Robinsons," $25.1 million.

3. "300," $11.2 million.

4. "TMNT," $9.2 million.

5. "Wild Hogs," $8.4 million.

6. "Shooter," $8 million.

7. "Premonition," $5.1 million.

8. "The Last Mimzy," $4 million.

9. "The Hills Have Eyes 2," $3.9 million.

10. "Reign Over Me," $3.7 million.

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Universal Pictures and Focus Features are owned by NBC Universal, a joint venture of General Electric Co. and Vivendi Universal; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; DreamWorks, Paramount and Paramount Vantage are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney's parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros., New Line, Warner Independent and Picturehouse are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp., Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lionsgate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.