All five of last week's new releases crashed during their second weeks on the charts, while older entries, The Expendables, Eat Pray Love, and The Other Guys held better, and rounded out the top 5 with the two main new releases. In a photo-finish, Takers squeaked past The Last Exorcism by less than $200,000 to nab the pole position. Outside of the Fast and the Furious franchise, actor Paul Walker has never exactly been a huge box office draw, and Takers is pretty much on par with his stronger openings – that is, on the low side for an action flick. The Last Exorcism, Hollywood's latest attempt to score another Exorcist-like hit has met the same fate as every other attempt since the original: relative indifference on the part of the mass audience. As for the aforementioned The Expendables, no Stallone movie (we don't count Spy Kids 3D: Game Over) has made over $100 million at the North American box office in 25 years. Could The Expendables break the curse? It's going to be close and very interesting to watch.
Next week, three more dumped movies open, none of which is likely to take in significantly more than $20 million in its opening: George Clooney's The Last American, Drew Barrymore's Going the Distance, and The Machete starring Danny Trejo.
Here are the domestic box office actuals for the weekend of August 27-29, 2010:
|
Title |
Weekend Gross
(US+Canada)
|
change from
last week
|
Total Gross
|
1 |
Takers
(Screen Gems)
|
$20,512,304 |
debut |
$20,512,304 |
2 |
The Last Exorcism
(Lionsgate Films)
|
$20,366,613 |
debut |
$20,366,613 |
3 |
The Expendables
(Lionsgate Films)
|
$9,527,937 |
-43.8% |
$82,040,183 |
4 |
Eat Pray Love
(Sony Pictures)
|
$6,815,555 |
-43.7% |
$60,531,326 |
5 |
The Other Guys
(Sony Pictures)
|
$6,285,712 |
-38.2% |
$99,018,172 |
6 |
Vampires Suck
(20th Century Fox)
|
$5,221,780 |
-57.2% |
$27,834,256 |
7 |
Inception
(Warner Bros.)
|
$4,876,356 |
-37.8% |
$270,519,920 |
8 |
Nanny McPhee Returns
(Universal)
|
$4,714,215 |
-43.9% |
$16,991,285 |
9 |
The Switch
(Miramax)
|
$4,583,481 |
-45.7% |
$16,410,009 |
10 |
Piranha 3D
(Weinstein Company)
|
$4,302,878 |
-57.4% |
$18,266,889 |
11 |
Avatar: The Special Edition
(20th Century Fox)
|
$4,007,750 |
debut |
$4,007,750 |
12 |
Lottery Ticket
(Warner Bros.)
|
$3,854,303 |
-63.8% |
$17,284,641 |
|