Friday Box Office Analysis
By Tim Briody
August 14, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
[tm:4768_]The Expendables[/tm]
The ploy of cramming a bunch of washed up and/or B-list action stars in one movie appears to have worked, as Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables opened solidly on Friday with $13.5 million. The word-of-mouth is pretty terrible and that number was likely fueled by a bit of a rush factor. The in all likelihood was its best day of the weekend. It should have enough of a lead over [tm:4878_]Eat Pray Love[/tm] for it to win the weekend. Even something as low as a 2.4 multiplier for the weekend gives the action film $32.4 million for the weekend.
Eat Pray Love
The ultimate chick flick (not counting the Sex and the City movies) earned $9 million on Friday. [bp:167_]Julia Roberts[/bp] is no longer the uber-draw she once was, but this is a decent enough start, and it's certainly going to have a better weekend multiplier than The Expendables. I expect a pretty decent Saturday for Eat Pray Love, enough so that it should manage about a 3.0 weekend multiplier and a $27 million weekend.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
The film based on a comic series my webmasters have been raving about for months, if not years, is here. Sadly, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World earned $4.7 million on Friday, well behind The Expendables and Eat Pray Love (and it's fourth on Friday behind [tm:5007_]The Other Guys[/tm]). Anyone who expected a mainstream breakout from this was kidding themselves, it's a niche within a niche movie and a weekend of $12.7 million is about the best it could have possibly hoped for. I completely expect it to find one hell of a following on DVD, though.
Notable Holdovers
Last week's champ, [bp:121_]Will Ferrell[/bp]'s The Other Guys suffers pretty hard, off 56% from last Friday to $5.7 million. It's still a definite rebound hit for Ferrell after last year's Land of the Lost. It's $100 million gross chances took a big hit here though. Give it $17.4 million in weekend two.
[tm:4282_]Step Up 3D[/tm] fares even worse, dropping 67% from last Friday to $2.3 million. Call it $6.4 million and be done with it.