Box Office: Fans Bend Over Backwards For ‘Last Exorcism’

Note: This week’s box office was an extremely tight race. When final numbers become available, the top two positions might change.

We actually had some movies over-perform at the box office for a change, and some little guys got to flex their muscles.  Lionsgate’s The Last Exorcism proved to be a polarizing movie.  It got a fairly positive 71% on Rotten Tomatoes, but Cinemascore reported a pretty dismal “D” grade from audiences.  Popular horror website  Bloody Disgusting reported that most readers absolutely hated the movie. (You can read our review of the movie here.)

However, the movie clearly piqued movie-goers curiosity, as the  $1.8 Million movie passed the $20 Million mark and made approximately $21.3 Million, a total that surpassed even the most optimistic of predictions. It will be interesting to see if the movie suffers a dramatic drop-off next weekend due to poor word of mouth.

Heist flick Takers closely trailed the horror film, and made about $21 Million.  The movie stars Matt Dillon, Chris Brown, Hayden Christenson, Paul Walker, Jonathon Schaech, and it-girl Zoe Saldana. It earned a measly 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, but clearly had a specific audience it was gunning for, and did a good job reaching it. Takers had the highest per/screen average for the weekend.

Stallone and the other Expendables continue to clean up at the box office.  The film nabbed the number three spot with $9.5 Million, bringing its total to $82 Million, and officially recouping its $80 Million budget.  Eat Pray Love also matched its budget this weekend, coming in at number four with about $7 Million.

The Other Guys continues to be a dependable performer, dropping only 35% in its fourth week in release, and placing fifth for the weekend. Last week’s vampire satire Vampires Suck dropped about 56%, and tumbled to number six.  The film’s budget was only $20 Million, and it has made $27 million in two weeks.  Piranha also dropped like a stone and barely managed the number ten spot.  It has not earned back its budget of $24 Million after two weeks.

Also of note:  Avatar was re-released as Avatar: Special Edition and boasted an extra nine minutes, but it hardly brought in huge numbers.  The film made another $4 Million, all on 3D screens.

Next week: George Clooney is The American, Drew Barrymore goes the distance, and Danny Trejo wields a Machete.