There may have been no less than five new releases crammed into US screens this weekend, but it’ll take more than that to dislodge Stallone’s rag-tag collection of bruisers from the top spot.
In fact, The Expendables maintained its box-office crown at a canter, raking in a healthy $16.5 million to bring its overall take up to $64.5 million in the US alone. Not bad going is it? Sly and the boys will be able to buy a fair few protein shakes with that little lot.
Forced to settle for second place was low-budget spoof Vampires Suck , taking a further $12.2 million to add to the $6.3 million scooped on its first two days of release. Considering that it only cost around $20 million to make, it looks as though Fox will soon have a tidy profit on their hands.
Julia Roberts vehicle Eat, Pray, Love continued to perform well in third with a $12 million take, whilst Lottery Ticket ’s (Ice Cube and Bow Wow, together at last…) $11.1 million haul saw it nab fourth spot.
Will Ferrell’s cop-based caper The Other Guys rounds off the top five with another $10.1 million, narrowly edging ou thet slash-and-splash mayhem Piranha 3D . It was a disappointing opener for the fishy flick, which took a meagre $10 million on its box-office debut.
Kiddy sequel Nanny McPhee Returns didn’t fare any better, limping to a seventh placed $8.3 million opening, but the weekend’s major flop was Jennifer Aniston’s latest rom-com The Switch , whose fertility-based chuckles fell flat to the tune of just $8.1 million.
Inception dumped another $7.6 million in the coffers to cling on to a spot in the top ten, but poor old Scott Pilgrim endured another torrid weekend, with audiences tailing off by more than 50% to leave it in tenth place with just $5 million. It’s a travesty we tell you!
Fingers crossed Edgar Wright’s flick can make a resurgence next week, although with a re-released Avatar swaggering back into town, we’re not holding our breath…
