The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan's latest offering, Inception, aptly silenced all naysayers, who predicted the film would fail to capture a mass audience for being "too smart", by raking in a cool $60.4 million, according to studio estimates over its opening weekend.

The film about thieves who steal secrets from dreams, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a 'dream thief', was touted to be a bit too intellectually heavy, something on the lines of Nolan's 2000 psychological thriller Memento.

Knocking aside Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice to third place with an opening of $17.4m and pushing the animated Despicable Me to second place, the film also proved to be Caprio's biggest opening.

However, Warner Bros. produced Inception, falls far short of Nolan's last offering The Dark Knight, which opened over the same weekend in 2008 bringing in over $158 million over the same period.

But as an independent film analytic points out, opening weekends are far from being the decisive factor as demonstrated by Avatar, which went on to earn a humongous $2.7 billion after a 'disappointing' opening weekend of $77 million.

Inception, infused with cutting edge special effects, is being widely loved by young audiences for its plot which has been praised and criticised for being both complex and confusing at times.

DiCapro, speaking to the BBC, said the film did not rely on the "regurgitated plot structures" of usual summer blockbusters.

"It's nice to see films like this and other films which come out that take a gamble a little bit, and don't underestimate their audience, and challenge them, " he said.

The Los Angeles Times reported that according to market research firm CinemaScore, audiences below 25 years gave the film an A grade, audiences above 25 gave it a B and those above 50 gave it a C.

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

He said he was confident that the film would definitely do well based on word of mouth publicity.