Young adults powered summer's riskiest movie to the top of the lunch tin boxes office chart this weekend, while families failed to wine ice buckets turn out for what is looking like summer's biggest flop.

It came in third at the box office behind "Despicable Me," which drew much of the family audience "Sorcerer's" was after. Universal Pictures' animated comedy declined 13 percent from its strong opening to 33.7 million, indicating that word-of-mouth was relatively strong.

That's particularly true considering that it's one of the few high-profile movies this summer that's not a sequel or based on a book or video game.

Younger audiences seemed to love the movie's plot, praised by some critics as complex and criticized by others as confusing, as well as its novel visual tricks, but older adults were more mixed.

The highest ever opening for a film not based on source material was 77 million for "Avatar" last winter. "Inception" failed to reach that stratsophere, it seems, due to its narrow appeal. With a PG-13 rating it couldn't get children, while adults over 35 simply didn't turn out in large numbers, representing only 37 percent of the audience.

"Our core showed up and they loved it," Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros., said of the young crowds. "I totally understand that those in the older age groups got lost in it and so that group is polarized."

But while the movie's appeal was narrow, it was also deep. Fellman said he's confident that the enthusiasm of younger fans will translate into strong word-of-mouth and repeat viewings.

"Obviously, we're disappointed for our filmmakers," said Disney distribution President Chuck Viane. "Nobody wanted a result like this."

Unless "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is a huge success overseas, it's destined to be a major money loser for Disney. In its first major foreign opening, the film started with a good but not great 1.8 million in Russia.

Warner and Legendary Pictures, which together spent 166 million to produce "Inception," will need it to play well for several weeks to make good on their sizable investment, which also includes more than 166 million in worldwide marketing costs.

But audiences just didn't take to the picture, despite the pedigree of producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turteltaub, who worked together on the hit "National Treasure" films.