Weekend Box Office: "The American" Leads Quiet Labor Day Weekend

An American hit man took on a former Mexican fed during the final weekend of the 2010 summer movie season as George Clooney's "The American" beat out Robert Rodriguez's "Machete" to land at the top spot at the North American box office, while the Drew Barrymore/Justin Long romantic comedy "Going the Distance" couldn't even get out of the starting gate. With these three new releases, Hollywood closed the books on a summer movie season that was decidedly a mixed affair at best. This weekend was off 14% from last weekend's totals and 1.5% from 2009's Labor Day weekend totals.


Estimates reported below are for the 3-Day weekend and does not include Labor Day Monday.

Opening this past Wednesday to get a head-start on the long weekend, "The American" landed in 2,823 theaters and grabbed $3.1 million for those two days. For the weekend, the movie pulled in a so-so $12.7 million to bring its total to $15.8 million. Reviews were mixed for the Clooney thriller, whose ad campaign emphasized the action to sell it as Bourne-esque but failed to tell people that it was more cerebral than action oriented. The film was directed by Anton Corbijn (Control).

Ask anyone who saw 2007's "Grindhouse" what their favorite part of the film was, chances are they would say the faux trailers. One of those trailers was Robert Rodriguez's "Machete", whose three minutes of blood, guts, bullets and babes proved more faithful to the Grindhouse genre than Rodriguez's feature-length contribution, "Planet Terror", was. Rodriguez has gone and made a feature-length film out of the "Machete" trailer, which Fox debuted on 2,670 screens this weekend to gross a mediocre $11.3 million. The film opened at number one on Friday with $3.9 million but moved to second place on Saturday as "The American" rose to first place and "Machete"s grosses stayed flat, indicating that the movie has limited appeal outside of Rodriguez's fanbase . Reviews overall for the Danny Trejo/Robert De Niro action flick were favorable.

Last weekend's number one film, Screen Gems' "Takers", fell by an acceptable 44.5% to land in second place this weekend for an estimated $11.45 million, bringing its ten-day total to $38 million. The film, which had the best per screen average in the top ten, should finish somewhere near the $55-60 million mark. Dropping a scary 63% from its debut was Lionsgate's "The Last Exorcism" with an estimated $7.55 million to land in fourth place for a ten-day gross of $32.3 million. The Eli-Roth produced thriller should finish with roughly $45 million.

After what seemed like an eternity of watching Drew Barrymore and Justin Long make goo-goo eyes at each other in the commercials and press, Warner dumped their movie "Going the Distance" into 3,030 theaters and wound up grossing an un-romantic $6.9 million in its premiere weekend. Critics were unimpressed (46% on Rotten Tomatoes) with the R-rated comedy, and the weak $2,272 per screen average showed that audiences appeared to be even more apathetic toward the film. In sixth place was Sly and friends as their hit "The Expendables" eased only 29% from last weekend, adding another $6.75 million to its cinematic body count, which now hovers around the $93 million mark. Overseas, the film has already smashed through the $100 million mark.

Will and Mark were back on the beat this weekend as "The Other Guys" eased a mere 14% to add $5.4 million to its total, which now stands at roughly $107 million. The film might find its way to $120-125 million prior to policing the home video market this fall. Julia Roberts' comedy/drama "Eat Pray Love" also benefitted from the holiday weekend, easing a slight 29% to gross $4.85 million, bringing its total to the $69 million range. The cinematic adaptation of the runaway bestseller still has a shot at finishing its run near the $80 million mark, commendable but still shy of "Julie and Julia", which was also a Sony-released comedy/drama that debuted during the August timeframe as counterprogramming to R-rated action fare (which was District 9 and Inglourious Basterds).

Christopher Nolan's "Inception" continued to draw people in its eighth weekend out, dropping only 7 percent while adding $4.7 million to its total, which currently stands at approximately $277.1 million. The Dream Team should finish its domestic extraction job near the $290 million mark. Universal's "Nanny McPhee Returns" spent one more weekend in the top ten by adding $3.575 million in estimated ticket sales to bring its total near the $23.6 million mark.

The top ten grossing films for the summer season are as follows:

• Toy Story 3: $408 million

• Iron Man 2: $312.1 million

• The Twilight Saga: Eclipse $299 million

• Inception: $277.1 million

• Despicable Me: $241.2 million

• Shrek Forever After: $238.4 million

• The Karate Kid (2010): $176 million

• Grown Ups: $160 million

• The Last Airbender: $131 million

• Salt: $115 million

Next weekend, the fall movie season kicks off with "Resident Evil: Afterlife". With no other contenders, watch for the 3-D sci-fi action film to dominate the dormant box office.