Weekend Box-Office: August 20-22, 2010

WEEKEND BOX-OFFICE

Expendables
takes out all competition!

Despite 5 new releases finishing in the top 8 this
week, it was Stallone and his action hero buddies that managed to
retain the #1 spot with another $17M added to their impressive
$65M total after only 10 days of release. Unfortunately for SCOTT
PILGRIM VS THE WORLD, it got further lost in the shuffle this
weekend, dropping from 5th to 10th place, despite it being only
$2M shy of becoming director Edgar Wright’s highest grossing movie
of his career (HOT FUZZ finished with $23M). Unfortunately for
everyone with taste in movies, VAMPIRES SUCK somehow
managed to finish in 2nd place, although only $2M separated the #2
and #6 movies this weekend, so it wasn’t a complete bust.

The week’s biggest disappointment had to be THE
SWITCH starring Jennifer Aniston (as Jennifer Aniston!!),
which managed only an 8th place opening, despite Aniston doing the
talk show rounds like you wouldn’t believe last week. Even friggin’
NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS scored higher numbers! The film that we’ve
been touting all weekend, PIRANHA 3D, also managed a decent
opening with $10M, but I believe the studio messed this
opportunity up for themselves, when they decided not to screen the
film to critics before it opened. You guys have heard of
online critics, right guys? We loooooove shit like this! In fact,
even "regular critics" loved this movie, as it’s now
scoring a whopping 81%
positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and an average
score of 7.7/10 from our reviewers on Movie Fan Central. If
they’re smart, Dimension Films will release a barrage of new TV
spots this week featuring all the great quotes, even if they’re
one week late.

INCEPTION continued its merry way, despite being
pushed down on the list by all the newcomers, adding another $8M
to its impressive total of $261M, which now makes it the 5th
highest grossing movie of 2010 behind TOY STORY 3, ALICE IN
WONDERLAND (??), IRON MAN 2 and ECLIPSE. With 5 new entries into
the top 10, five films also had to get booted from the big list
including CATS & DOGS 2 ($39M), STEP UP 3D ($36M), SALT
($110M), DINNER WITH SCHMUCKS ($66M) and DESPICABLE ME ($231M).
It’s note that DESPICABLE ME is the 7th highest grossing movie of
the year so far, and the 2nd highest grossing animated film behind
TOY STORY 3.

Next weekend is the dreaded "dump week"
with films like CENTURION,
TAKERS
and THE
LAST EXORCISM being dropped into theaters in the hopes that
nobody notices. Oh and something called AVATAR:
SPECIAL EDITION which will be re-released in about 700
theaters as well. Bugh. Is it possible that THE EXPENDABLES remain
the #1 movie again next weekend? Yeah, I think so. But for now,
let’s look ahead at the half-decent slate that we’re being offered
in September. What film do you most wanna see in September? VOTE
HERE!!!

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