Ben Affleck's second shot as director, The Town, easily took the number one slot and grossed more in its first three days than Affleck's directorial debut, 2007's Gone Baby Gone, did in its entire run.  Easy A opened in second place with almost $18 million, which was solid for the teen comedy genre.  Costing only $8 million to make, Easy A has already broken even on its production budget.  The other two openers, the horror flick, Devil, and the animated Alpha and Omega performed on the low end of their respective genres.

Among holdovers, Drew Barrymore's Going the Distance dropped like a brick from number 5 to number 13 after only 3 weeks.  As of now, it stands at $16.7 million total domestic gross, about half of its modest production budget.  Last week's champ, Resident Evil: Afterlife, shed 62.5% of its audience and fell to number 4 on the chart.  However, Resident Evil is a solid worldwide franchise, and this fourth film in the series has already made over $100 million additionally in overseas markets owing largely to the higher ticket prices that its 3D format commands.  Elsewhere, Sylvester Stallone has achieved a symbolic victory: his first $100 million domestic grossing movie in 25 years as The Expendables crossed the mark after 36 days in release.

Next week's new entries seem somewhat more promising: the animated fable, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, the greed-is-good sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, and the comedy, You Again, starring Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Sigourney Weaver.

Here are the domestic box office actuals for the weekend of September 17-19, 2010: 

It was a week with a single new major release, so sure enough, Resident Evil: Afterlife landed in the top spot.  The Summer season has been giving way to the Fall doldrums the last couple of weeks – problem is, it's still Summer.  But with the kids back to school, there were significant drops in movies across the board.  Takers, however, seems to be holding on a little better, and lifted itself one position even as its box office fell almost 48%.  Meanwhile, The Expendables is inching ever closer to the $100 million mark, and might just get there after next weekend.

Speaking of next weekend, it officially begins the Fall movie season as no less than four movies are opening in wide release: Alpha and Omega, Devil (story, but not directed by, M. Night Shyamalan), Easy A, and The Town (starring and directed by Ben Affleck).

Here are the domestic box office actuals for the weekend of September 10-12, 2010:

This episode of US Townhall RealStories was recorded on Thursday, September 9 at 2pm Eastern.

Join us for a special chat with Bob Dowling, the Chairperson for the upcoming 3D Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles.  This summit brings together the major players from the worlds of entertainment and finance in order to have them engage in discussion and debate regarding current and future developments in the 3D marketplace.  Many Hollywood studios will attend this event along with the major names in electronics manufacturing.  In addition to Mr. Dowling, featured speakers include Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO and President of DreamWorks Animation SKG and writer-director, M. Night Shyamalan.

Click on the triangular "play" button below to listen to the episode right here on this site!

With the three-day Labor Day weekend concluded, the Summer movie season that began back in May is officially over.  As usual for this time of year, none of the new releases wowed at the box office, but George Clooney's latest, The American, nabbed the top spot with $16.6 million.  Factoring in the box office from its early debut on Wednesday, and its domestic total stands at $19.8 million.

Machete, starring Danny Trejo, did okay with a $14.1 million opening, while Drew Barrymore's latest romantic comedy, Going the Distance, underwhelmed in fifth place with an $8.5 million three-day take.  Distance's production budget, at $32 million, was actually larger than that of either The American or Machete, making its mediocre debut all the more disappointing.

Among holdovers, Takers increased its lead over last week's fellow opener, The Last Exorcism, falling a smaller than normal 34% in its second weekend and lifting its domestic total to about $40 million.  Despicable Me, this summer's surprise animated hit increased its box office by 41.5% and leaped back into the top 12 based on, we suspect, being released on the budget theater circuit.

We'll be back later in the week for our Summer Movie Season wrap up of winners and losers.

Here are the domestic box office actuals for the weekend of September 3-6, 2010: