George Clooney’s “The American” drew first blood in the holiday box office competition beating all comers. With Labor Day holiday factored in, the assassin drama targeted $16.3 million. Its closest rival was the action-revenge movie “Machete”, which had a 4-day accumulation of $14.0 million. Total box office gross for the Clooney film is $19.5 million. Noteworthy is the fact that “The American” had a Wednesday opening, however, so it had a 2-day head start.
This is the first week of release for both “The American” and the Danny Trejo vehicle, “Machete”. The estimated budgets for both “The American” and “Machete” are a reported $20 million each, so when sighting foreign box office, DVD, VOD, pay cable, and all the other ancillary revenue streams, each pic should do well for the studios that pulled the trigger (Focus Features and Twentieth Century Fox, respectively).
T.I.’s legal troubles did little to bolster the b.o. for “Takers”, which fell to third place, meaning the take for the film was $13.5 million with a to-date stash of $39.9 million. The crime pic boasts an estimated budget of $32 million. “The Last Exorcism” exorcised filmgoers, evidenced by its drop from the number two spot last week to number four this week. The percent drop off of audience attendance was in the 56% range, which usually indicates that a film won’t be around much longer. The Eli Roth-produced horror flick has scared up $33.5 million on a reported $1.8 million budget, so there’s a good chance the “The Last Exorcism” may find life again and resurrect a sequel. This is the second week in release for both “Takers” and “The Last Exorcism”.
Rounding out the top five is “Going the Distance”, which apparently does not have much get up and go. The Drew Barrymore rom-com didn’t impress audiences with much of either. The film’s $8.6 million sum probably won’t have its studio, Warner Bros., laughing all the way to the bank. “Going” barely peaked with a per screen average of $2842. This is the film’s first week in release.
Weekend box office numbers according to Box Office Mojo.
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