Weekend Box Office: George Clooney's 'The American' keeps 'Machete' in second place

This weekend, the box office showdown came down to two very different films, with two very different-looking stars: George Clooney's The American and Danny Trejo's Machete.  The question was: do audiences wanna see Clooney do his version of a Bourne movie, or do they wanna see an exploitation parody with the world's hottest man swinging around a big knife?  Audiences have spoken, Clooney won, and we've got the details for you below, my gentle Examiner readers...

There was plenty of guessing going on by box office analysts as we headed into this weekend, much of it revolving around whether or not audiences were going to embrace Robert Rodriguez' Machete-- a grindhouse-era exploitation parody with Danny Trejo in the lead-- or George Clooney in the somber-looking The American, and now that it's Sunday and the figures have come in, we can all stop the madness: Clooney and his otherworldly good looks have kept Danny Trejo and his San Quentin good looks in second place.  For what it's worth, they were both reviewed well.

The other story worth paying attention to was the performance of The Last Exorcism, which was the frontrunner last week until Monday's numbers revealed that the ridiculous-looking Takers had knocked it out of first place.  The Last Exorcism is notable for having one of the worst Cinemascores of the year, with people leaving the theater giving it a solid "D", so many were curious to see how far the film would drop-off in its second week of release.  The answer?  Fourth place, with a 57% drop-off.  All things considered, that's not the 70%+ drop that some were expecting, and that's good news for all involved.  Movie still sucked, though.

Also worth noting: Inception is still in the top ten (congrats, Chris Nolan: you've had your umpteenth hit: now please get back to work on the Batman franchise), while Scott Pilgrim has failed to make a comeback (despite the fact that I personally witnessed several sold-out showings at the Drafthouse this week, which leads me to believe that the country's box office isn't entirely centered on one theater in Austin, TX-- shocking).  And The Expendables?  That movie's creeping up on $100m.  If you had told me three weeks ago that Scott Pilgrim would fall flat, while a greasy-looking Sly Stallone would have a film closing in on $100m, I would've laughed in your face.  But there it is.

Here's the full top ten, numbers courtesy of Deadline Hollywood:

1. The American (Focus Features) NEW [2,823 Theaters] Opened Wed
Friday $3.8M, Saturday $4.9M, Est 4-Day Holiday $16.5M, Est Cume $20M

2. Machete (Fox) NEW [2,670 Theaters]
Friday $3.9M, Saturday $3.9M, Est 4-Day Holiday $14.7M)

3. Takers (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 2 [2,206 Theaters]
Friday $3.1M, Saturday $4.3M, Est 4-Day Holiday $14.5M, Est Cume $40.5M

4. The Last Exorcism (Lionsgate) Week 2 [2,874 Theaters]
Friday $2.3M, Saturday $3M, Est 4-Day Holiday $9.5M (-57%), Est Cume $34.3M

5. Going The Distance (Warner Bros) NEW [3,030 Theaters]
Friday $2.2M, Saturday $2.4m, Est 4-Day Holiday $8.5M

6. The Expendables (Lionsgate) Week 4 [3,398 Theaters]
Friday $1.6M, Saturday $2.4M, Est 4-Day Holiday $8.2M, Est Cume $94M

7. The Other Guys (Sony) Week 5 [2,607 Theaters]
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $1.9M, Est 4-Day Holiday $6.6M, Est Cume $108M

8. Eat Pray Love (Sony) Week 4 [2,663 Theaters]
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $1.8M, Est 4-Day Holiday $6.5M, Est Cume $70.5M

9. Inception (Warner Bros) Week 8 [1,704 Theaters]
Friday $1.1M, Estimated 4-Day Holiday $6M, Estimated Cume $278.4M

10. Nanny McPhee Returns (Working Title/Universal) Week 3 [2,708 Theaters]
Friday $875K, Estimated 4-Day Holiday $5M, Estimated Cume $23.9M

Stay tuned for more box office news reports in the weeks ahead, my precious snowflakes.  You can hit the "Subscribe" button up top to get the weekly box office rundown every Sunday, along with whatever other nonsense the Comedy Examiner publishes during the week.  While you're deciding on making that commitment, let's take a look at the trailer for the number one film in release this week, The American: