| Film | Weekend | Per | Total | |
| 1 | The Last Exorcism | $21,300,000 | $7,411 | $21,300,000 |
| 2 | Takers | $21,000,000 | $9,519 | $21,000,000 |
| 3 | The Expendables | $9,500,000 (-44.0%) | $2,796 | $82,010,000 |
| 4 | Eat Pray Love | $7,000,000 (-42.2%) | $2,252 | $60,716,000 |
| 5 | The Other Guys | $6,600,000 (-35.1%) | $2,075 | $99,300,000 |
| 6 | Vampires Suck | $5,300,000 (-56.6%) | $1,639 | $27,912,000 |
| 7 | Inception | $5,105,000 (-34.9%) | $2,466 | $270,749,000 |
| 8 | Nanny McPhee Returns | $4,743,000 (-43.6%) | $1,695 | $17,020,000 |
| 9 | The Switch | $4,658,000 (-44.8%) | $2,309 | $16,484,000 |
| 10 | Piranha 3D | $4,308,000 (-57.4%) | $1,729 | $18,272,000 |
This just in: Anchorman is out on Blu-ray right fucking now. So time to head to Best Buy and pony up for that fine drink of wine.
In a contest of hair splitting we may yet see a different the number one picture this week. It’s funny, I was looking at tracking on geekweek live’s show, and Avatar had the best numbers. But that had everything to do with the film’s original release. That film came up at #12, but finally crossed the $750 Million dollar mark. The Last Exorcism and Takers are neck and neck, and one or both may have inflated/deflated their numbers trying to get number one. It looks like Lionsgate has it, and the film was exceptionally cheap, so at this point it’s a big win even if it only gets to $40 Million. Takers was likely a little more costly, but opening to $20 a the dead end of summer is the best of all options.
The Expendables is in a place now where it might just get to $100. End of summer may let it play okay for the next three weeks, so it’s not out of the question. It is better off than Eat Pray Love, which hasn’t died, but is a serious underperformer. I don’t think it hurts anyone, but it doesn’t ingratiate Julia Roberts as expertly bankable. She doesn’t seem to have any mojo, and Meryl Streep seems to play better with older women. I don’t know if the picture would have done more or less with a Rachel Weisz. The Other Guys will crack $100 by Monday, and has some life left in it. Vampires Suck was cheap, so though it’s been falling steady… again, around $40 is where these end up, and that sounds about right here, maybe a little more or less.
Inception is holding the best of any older title, and should weather a number of the pictures above and below it. I don’t think it has the tenacity to get to $300 on this first release, but I also don’t know what Warners is doing with this w/r/t Oscars. Nanny McPhee is now profitable against its initial cost, so it all depends on Universal’s involvement in production. As this was more of an international audience picture, I doubt they went halvsies, and this probably had a pittance of standard advertising.
Miramax is a zombie company right now, so though The Switch probably cost too much, the numbers aren’t desperately horrible. By the time of release – even with the proposed sequel in the works, Piranha seems like a bigger failure. Why? Because look at The Last Exorcism. Labor Day weekend is almost upon us, which means a gold balded headed dude is about to change the conversation.