Varied Levels of Success at the Box Office for New Openers

It was a busy weekend at the box office where old action stars reigned supreme, a reliable female star opened a film to modest numbers, and a potential cult-classic couldn’t gain any traction.

Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables, which united numerous action stars of the past, resonated with a large segment of males looking for a straight big action offering. Despite primarily disappointing reviews (citing great action but poor acting and story) the crowd supported it leading it to the top spot at the box office with $35 million. The film had been tracking in that range for some time so it made for little surprise. At a budget of just around $70 million making back half of that in just the opening weekend is big, especially considering it is expected to play well overseas so it is well on its way to being profitable and a undeniable success.

In second place was Eat Pray Love which stars Julia Roberts. Though she has lost some of her box office shine she still has the ability to open a film especially one that is targeted right at a mature female audience. The movie opened to just under $24 million. Reviews slanted negative but again here is yet another movie that played well to a particular audience despite that.

The crushing disappointment of the weekend came with Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Despite generally positive reviews (80% on RT and check out my review) it went largely ignored taking in just $10.5 million. The film was marketed heavily, though it could be brought into question whether the marketing was effective. I wouldn’t say I was sold on the commercials or trailers but instead it was the word of mouth.

Based on a popular graphic novel Scott Pilgrim was a huge hit at Comic-Con and got a ton of buzz going for it. That just didn’t carry over to a general audience and maybe they even over-screened it. The film is likely to do well when it hits DVD/Blu-ray but that won’t make up for the disappointing box office performance. The rumor is the movie cost upwards of $90 million to make. Despite the great word of mouth even now it saw a fall from Friday to Saturday which suggests it isn’t going to have much legs to speak of.

In other news Toy Story 3 has crossed the $400 million mark and is now the highest grossing animated film of all-time.  The Other Guys fell a respectable 49% in its second weekend to finish in third place with $18 million. Inception is up to nearly $250 million in its domestic take and finished in fourth place.