2010 August 15. 23:40

WEEKEND BOX-OFFICE: AUGUST 13-15, 2010

Is it possible that 64-year old "action star" Sylvester Stallone is back and here to stay?!? After the great success of both RAMBO and ROCKY BALBAO, his latest new venture entitled THE EXPENDABLES -- and featuring a ton of other action stars -- became the #1 movie this week and by a long shot at that! Julia Roberts movies used to open at #1 in the good ol' days, but it seems as though the power of the macho men was too much for her in 2010, as EAT PRAY LOVE opened with a decent $24M in second place. For fans of Stallone (like myself), it's great to see him back in the saddle, doing what he does best and hopefully keeping it going with a possible sequel.

Oddly enough, despite 75% of EAT PRAY LOVE movie-goers being women, close to 40% of EXPENDABLES' audience were also women! That probably bodes really well for the film's future (much like 300), but as per usual, only time will let us know how the film performs in the long-term.

Unfortunately for fans of Edgar Wright and his extremely well-received SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD, not enough people went to see the film this past weekend, leaving it with a decent (but not mind-blowing) $11M and 5th place opening. Normally that figure would be awesome for any Wright movie (SHAUN OF THE DEAD opened with $3M and ended up with $14M, while HOT FUZZ opened with $6M and ended up with $23M), but word on the street is that PILGRIM cost upwards of $60M, so the film will have to perform a lot better around the world, and on home video, if they want it to become profitable. I personally don't doubt that it will, since pretty much everyone I know who saw it, loved it, but I guess only time will tell.

The rest of the top 10 remained pretty much the same, with the biggest drop in audience coming from STEP UP 3D which went from 3rd to 7th place (60% drop). Last week's #1 movie, THE OTHER GUYS, also kept making money, adding another $18M to its coffers, while one of the best surprises of the summer, INCEPTION, kept rolling along with another $11M added to its grand total of close to $250M now. The three films to get bounced from the top 10 this week included THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT ($17M), the misfire CHARLIE ST. CLOUD ($29M) and the most successful animated movie of all-time, TOY STORY 3.

1. The Expendables ($35.0m/$35.0m)
2. Eat Pray Love ($23.7m/$23.7m)
3. The Other Guys ($18.0m/$70.5m)
4. Inception ($11.4m/$248.6m)
5. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World ($10.5m/$10.5m)
6. Step Up 3D ($6.6m/$29.6m)
7. Despicable Me ($6.8m/$222.0m)
8. Salt ($6.4m/$103.6m)
9. Dinner for Schmucks ($6.3m/$58.8m)
10. Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore ($4.1m/$35.1m)

[ Joblo ]