Apparently this week it’s brawn over brains because not only did The Expendables demolish Julia Roberts’ soul-seeking drama Eat Pray Love, but the best reviewed newcomer, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, as well. In fact, that one didn’t even crack the top three. Sylvester Stallone’s muscled up adventure opened with an impressive $35 million while Eat Pray Love had a decent first showing with $23.7 million.
The Other Guys took a 49.4% hit in week two taking in $18 million, earning it the third position. Holding on strong in week five is Inception. It added another $10.5 million to its pot, which now sits at $248.6 million.
The sad story of the week is poor Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Even with primarily positive reviews, the romance/action/videogame hybrid only managed to pull in $10.5 million in week one. Its underperformance is as evident as ever when you take a look at the average intake per theater. The Expendables earned $10,713 per theater while Scott Pilgrim could only muster up $3,735 per location.
The sixth spot went to Despicable Me, which earned $6.8 million in its sixth week. It now has a grand total of $222 million. Coming in at #7 is Step Up 3D which fell hard in its second week, dropping 58.1% and only earning $6.6 million. Salt nabbed the #8 spot with $6.4 million followed closely by Dinner for Schmucks with $6.3 million. Rounding out the top ten is Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore with $4.1 million
We’ve got five big ones hitting theaters next weekend, Lottery Ticket, Nanny McPhee Returns, Piranha 3D, The Switch and the Wednesday release, Vampires Suck. Between the masses hungry for horror and the pricier 3D tickets, I’m guessing the weekend will go to Piranha, but beyond that it could be a tight race. I’d say more would turn out for a Jennifer Aniston/Jason Bateman starrer, but The Switch is only hitting about 1,900 theaters as compared Piranha’s 2,500, Nanny McPhee’s 2,600 and Vampires Suck’s 2,900.
Regardless of that theater count, if Vampires Suck performs like the last vampire spoof, Transylmania, it’ll be a sad weekend for Fox. Transylmania reached 1,007 theater, but only earned $397,641 and was out of the theaters within two weeks. The original Nanny McPhee opened with $14.5 million and considering there’s nothing else particularly kid-friendly opening up, the sequel’s got a good chance of doing the same. As for Lottery Ticket, I don’t see it doing too much damage, but the massive and well-known cast will likely at least get it across the $10 million mark.
By Perri Nemiroff (via Box Office Mojo)
