It was déjà vu all over again as funny buddy cops and stereoscopic hip hoppers joined the summer box office fray. The cruiser bruisers of The Other Guy debuted at the top of the movie charts with an estimated $35.7 million while the foot stompers of Step Up 3D slotted third overall with a disappointing $15.4 million.

A couple of new entries from the majors fulfilled contract obligations sans distinction. Middle Men bowed with $323,000 at 252 venues and the young love Flipped entered three markets to a gross of $233,000 on 45 screens. Both have little chance of more than token expansion.

In the niches there were solid returns of $394,000 for local hero Filiere 13 in Quebec and impressive response for Telegu-lingo Don Seenu of $224,000 while Hindi entry Aisha … Don’t Be Cupid was tepid with box office of $153,000. The dissolute twentysomethings of Twelve failed to register a pulse with just $87,800 from 231 playdates.

Among a raft of exclusive freshmen the best results included Cairo Time with $66,500 at five sites; a $16,100 tally on two screens for Venice prize-winner Lebanon; and a dozen venues posting $68,200 for large screen pictorial The Wildest Dream.

The fragmented marketplace experienced its first downturn in two months and the prognosis for the rest of summer fails to brighten as a handful of wide releases are poised in the wings next Friday. The current weekend added close to $135 million in sales that amounted to a 10% slip from last weekend and an 11% decline from 2009 when debuts of GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Julie & Julia led with respective B.O. of $54.7 million and $20 million.

Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg dusted off the buddy cop genre effectively and got essentially anticipated results for The Other Guys. But it’s generally been a brutal season for comic fare and as competition ramps up in August side-stepping commercial pitfalls will only escalate.

Step Up 3D hoped to expand its audience by extending its perspective. But exit polls indicated that the film played to the core crowd who embraced 3D playdates with those engagements comprising 80% of ticket sales that out-distancing conventional showing with averages two and half times more potent.

It’s been 57 years since Kiss Me Kate employed 3D for dance and earlier this year the British StreetDance plumbed Step Up terrain and grossed an impressive $46 million in European and Asian engagements.

“3D is ideal for dance,” observed Step Up choreographer Jamal Simms. “There was very little that had to be altered for the process because you’re always working with foreground and background movement to provide perspective. But when you start to factor in the elements — dust, water — the emotional component ramps up.”

Step Up 3D had day and date openings in 11 countries via Summit and UPI. In the UK it grossed $3.2 million to rank second to Toy Story and was just behind Inception in Australia with $3 million.

Studios appear to be having a tougher time selling movies not targeted toward audiences under the age of 25 … or perhaps they’ve simply given up. Both Middle Men, an unconventional fact-based look at pornography and the internet and the first love Flipped needed a TLC approach the majors seem loathe to devote to make the difference between write off and success d’estime.

One can also disregard the notion that the marketplace is going to thin out anytime soon with news this week of new companies with capitol to produce and distribute films. The volume of movies this summer combined with at least a dozen alternative pictures playing well and holding screens has translated into a very fragmented marketplace. Next weekend’s release of five new national openings should apply the hammerlock to a lot of mainstream titles currently on screen as well as specialized fare that managed to crossover. As one mainstream distributor noted, forget about finding 3,000-screen launches until after Labor Day … there’s no room at the inn.

– Leonard Klady

Domestic Market Share: January 1 – July 23, 2010

Top Domestic Grossers: January 1 – July 23, 2010