The Box Office Beat

The Expendables continued to show their muscle at the box office this weekend, beating out five new movies for the number one spot!

After only two weeks at the box office, The Expendables have brought in $64 Million towards their $80 Million budget and should have no problems making the rest back before next weekend starts.  The movie fell only 52% from last weekend, which is pretty standard fare these days (unless you’re Inception) and still managed to average $5,000 per theater.

The cast has been hinting at a sequel being in the works, and Sylvester Stallone has confirmed that Jean-Claude Van Damme is disappointed in himself for not taking the role he was offered.  Will The Muscles from Brussels make an appearance in the inevitable followup to the smash hit?  What other mega stars may join the ranks of this incredible cast?  It would seem that at this point, any action star could benefit from lining up with a franchise this successful.

Debuting in second place was Vampire’s Suck, which somehow managed to bring in $12 Million towards its $20 Million budget.  The movie actually opened on Wednesday, and opened with as much as it made on Friday alone, meaning that it most likely would have beat out The Expendables had it not released early.  The movie has grossed $18 Million since release, and almost guarantees that more of these types of low brow comedies (using the term loosely here) will follow.  Vampires made only $200,000 more than Eat,Pray, Love, which came in third this weekend.  In fact, only $2 Million separated Vampires from Piranha 3D, which came in 6th.

Lottery Ticket was the huge surprise of the weekend, bringing in $11 Million and scoring a 4th place finish.  The movie had a budget of only $17 Million and almost assures that a sequel will be on its way.  What’s more impressive than the movie’s weekend score is the movie’s average per theater of $5,639.  It averaged more than any other movie this weekend, including The Expendables and also played on just 1,973 theaters (that’s nearly 2,000 theaters less than Expendables).

The rest of the top ten were all neck-and-neck, with only $4 Million separating the 3rd through 8th.  Piranha 3D scored an impressive $10 Million and a 6th place finish, while Nanny McPhee Returns landed $8 Milion for 7th place.  The Switch proved that Jennifer Aniston can bomb at the box office, bringing in only $8 Million for its three day haul.  Its never a pretty day when a Nanny McPhee sequel beats out the latest Jennifer Aniston vehicle.

But the real story of the weekend was the impressive fall of Scott Pilgrim vs The World.  The movie had a budget of $60 Million and managed only $10 Million in its first three days.  Now entering its second week in theaters, Pilgrim fell 52%, bringing in only $5 Million and taking its total box office score to just $20 Million.  The movie fell down to 10th place on the charts, and averaged a horrid $1,785 per theater.

In comparison, Despicable Me, Salt, Step Up 3D, Toy Story 3, The Kids Are All Right, and Get Low all averaged more than Pilgrim and all of them were outside of the top ten this week.  The closest theater average within the top ten to Pilgrim was The Other Guys, which landed in fifth place this weekend, and it averaged $2,900 per theater.  What’s even worse is that Pilgrim actually added theaters this weekend.  At least now maybe Michael Cera will be more than available for that Arrested Development movie.

Sundays figures are reported as estimates, and with so many of these accounts being within grasp of one another, it won’t be surprising if some of these positions change once the actuals are released on Monday.

Weekend Box Office – Top 10

The Expendables – $16.5 Million

Vampires Suck – $12.2 Million

Eat Pray Love – $12 Million

Lottery Ticket – $11.12 Million

The Other Guys – $10.1 Million

Piranha 3D – $10 Milion

Nanny McPhee Returns – $8.3 Million

The Switch – $8.1 Million

Inception – $11 Million

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World - $10 Million

Article written by Matt Wehner on GotchaMovies.com. Reposted with permission.