islandclaws

From Deadline:

1. The Expendables (Lionsgate) NEW [3,270 Theaters]
Friday $13.5M, Estimated Weekend $34M

Friday's grosses include a little Thursday midnight money. But even when The Expendables came on tracking, it looked big. And the timing couldn't have been better what with Lionsgate getting beaten up by Carl Icahn on a daily basis, and Sylvester Stallone needing a fresh hit in his dotage. Kudos to Sly for coming up with such an irresistible concept directing and starring with today's and yesteryear's action heroes like Jason Statham, Jet Li, Randy Couture, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, and even Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger (for nanoseconds in cameos). "Are The Expendables wearing Dependables?" one rival studio exec snarked in an email to me. Still, it's the kind of old school camp that the action box office needs.

Hollywood was predicting at the very least $30+M for the pic despite being R-rated and only 2D. But it's helped by a short running time of only 1 hour, 43 minutes. And maybe that hilarious Comic-Con: 'The Expendables' Panel made some difference. The marketing all along was fresh and funny, mostly because Stallone wasn't afraid to make fun of his image. The older male crowd was the leader for unaided awareness, awareness, definite interest, as well as choice. Young males followed closely behind in all categories with older females actually registering in all categories as well. Though at significantly lower levels.

2. Eat Pray Love (Sony) NEW [3,082 Theaters]
Friday $9M, Estimated Weekend $26.5M

If older males flocked to Sly, then older females embraced Eat Pray Love even with its has-been star Julia Roberts (remember, she couldn't open Duplicity with co-star Clive Owen) in this music video of a film directed by Glee's Ryan Murphy and based on the treacly bestseller by Elizabeth Gilbert. Which is why Paramount was right to pass on what looked like a one-quadrant loser. (Paramount vs Sony On 'Eat Pray Love') Really, I hoped women had better taste in movies than this. "At only 37% [positive reviews] on Rotten Tomatoes, they better hurry up and pray that it doesn’t leave their favorite multiplex too fast,' one rival studio exec emailed me. Make no mistake: the only reason this pic made any opening weekend coin was because of the brilliant job done once again by Sony's marketing team of Jeff Blake, Marc Weinstock, and this time George Leon and his 72-hour EPL weekend extravaganza on HSN. The studio's expensive and omnipresent ads and promotions drove box office among women. "Whether they were in theaters, online, watching television, listening to radio, or shopping in their favorite malls and stores, they saw our campaign," a Sony exec gushed. Shame on this studio co-run by a female for selling the pic's self-discovery prattle by pushing women to purchase crap like lotus petal necklaces.

3. The Other Guys (Sony) Week 2 [3,651 Theaters]
Friday $5.7M (-56%), Estimated Weekend $17.2M, Estimated Cume $70M

4. Scott Pilgrim vs The World (Universal) NEW [2,818 Theaters]
Friday $4.7M, Estimated Weekend $11M)

This odd but innovative movie is yet another greenlight from the fired Mark Shmuger at Universal. He's the gift that keeps on giving the studio expensive underperformers. Yet the current regime embraced Scott Pilgrim vs The World as a counterprogramming maneuver this weekend even though they knew auteur filmmaker Edgar Wright's $60M budgeted envelope pusher wouldn't open or earn out. But that's only because it got great reviews (which moviegoers under 25 rarely read). Uni tried to hype the genre-bending pic as too cool for the room and claim it didn't know if Scott Pilgrim would make $5M or $15M this weekend. But the pic will do exactly what Uni execs predicted to me it would. A pittance.

5. Inception (Warner Bros) Week 5 [3,120 Theaters]
Friday $3.4M (-38%), Estimated Weekend $11.5M, Estimated Cume $248.6M

6. Step Up 3D (Disney/Summit) Week 2 [2,439 Theaters]
Friday $2.3M (-65%), Estimated Weekend $6.5M, Estimated Cume $29.5M

7. Despicable Me (Universal) Week 6 [2,923 Theaters]
Friday $2.3M (-16%), Estimated Weekend $7.8M, Estimated Cume $223M

8. Dinner For Schmucks (DW/Spyglass/Paramount) Week 3 [3,046 Theaters]
Friday $2M (-40%), Estimated Weekend $6.5M, Estimated Cume $59M

9. Salt (Sony) Week 4 [2,834 Theaters]
Friday $1.8M (-43%), Estimated Weekend $6.5M, Estimated Cume $103.7M

10. Cats & Dogs 2: Kitty Galore (Warner Bros) Week 3 [2,728 Theaters]
Friday $1.7M (-20%), Estimated Weekend $5.5M, Estimated Cume $36.5M

stingermck

Yay for Expendables. I wish Pilgrim was doing better though.

Solid Snake

Ditto. Sad to see Wright get a good opening.

chuckd21

I think everyone is missing the bigger picture. Audiences have finally chosen Eric Roberts over Julia Roberts.

Solid Snake

Off topic: What's a good Eric Roberts film? Like...I honestly never knew he even existed until TDK. After that..I saw all that backstory on him. So....just to get to know the man..what's a good Eric Roberts film?

riotinmyskull

best of the best

Fist of Doom

The Pope of Greenwich Village
Star 80

islandclaws

The Ambulance directed by Larry Cohen.

stingermck

Best of the Best
Heaven Prisoners
DOA: Dead or Alive

Solid Snake

I'm assuming you're joking about DOA?

Numanoid

Runaway Train

but Star 80 is his crowning achievement.

JumpCutz

He should have won an Academy Award for Star 80. A truly great performance.

stingermck

Im a fan of the series, and looking at his film list it was one that i've seen.

It is great to think he beat Julia this weekend.

Servo

Good as in "great acting"? No. Good as in "balls out insane", absolutely. Come one, he had kung fu sunglasses!

Solid Snake

I'll check it out..just read up on it. Thanks guys. I'd like to see him in more roles. He seems like a really cool likable guy.

LosingMyMind

Supermallet

LorenzoL

Star 80 is Eric Robert's best performance but I'm always fond of "Best of the Best".

Dr Mabuse

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The Valeyard

Doctor Who TV Movie.

Supermallet

I just watched that recently. It was better than I expected.

mdc3000

Best of the Best 2 is easily my favourite. Just damn awesome

I honestly don't know how Scott Pilgrim isn't doing better. I know America has Cera fatigue and isn't sure what to make of the style but anyone skipping it because of that is really missing out on something great.... frustrating.

MBoyd

I want to see Scott Pilgrim. Probably will next week. Tried to get my wife to even go watch it for free at The Alamo Drafthouse. Her response: No, it looks like a Video Game. Well, uh yeah, that's the point, dear. Maybe that's what the movie going public are saying?

I did get her to watch The Expendables though.

Patman

The reason Scott Pilgrim isn't doing well is because it mainly appeals to the younger demographic who is into teen angst, video games, garage band music, comic books, and live-action cartoony violence (given the marketing of the film by its trailers and ad spots). There isn't a really wide swath of the general population who are really into those sorts of things.

Numanoid

^ Agreed. Scott is aimed HUGELY at hipsters, and almost everyone hates hipsters. Except for maybe some hipsters.