Stallone's 'Expendables' Still on Top in Week 2

USA Today

The Expendables proved to be anything but this weekend, coasting to the top spot for the second straight week.

The Sylvester Stallone action film took in $16.5 million, according to Hollywood.com. Although the movie dropped 53% from last week's debut, it was plenty to hold off a slew of newcomers, including a surprisingly strong start for the parody Vampires Suck.

But there was no denying Stallone and his band of aging action icons.

"There hasn't been an action film like this since the throwback years" of the 1980s and '90s, says David Spitz, head of distribution for Lionsgate, which released the picture. "It's clear there's a public appetite for good action."

Enough to warrant a sequel?

"Nothing has been decided," Spitz says. "But it's pretty impressive what (Expendables) did this weekend, especially against all that competition."

Indeed, the weekend was one of Hollywood's busiest, with five movies opening. And none were a match for Vampires Suck, the parody of the Twilight films. Despite a no-name cast and a $17 million budget, the comedy made $12.2 million. The film, which opened Wednesday, has raked in $18.6 million so far.

The movie got an unusual boost from males, who usually thumb their noses at vampire flicks but made up 45% of the audience this weekend. "That was a great surprise," says Bert Livingston of 20th Century Fox, which released Vampires. "It puts us in a great position for the rest of summer."

The Julia Roberts romance Eat Pray Love was third with $12 million, followed by the comedy Lottery Ticket, which surprised analysts with $11.1 million.

Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg's The Other Guys rounded out the top five with $10.1 million.

The horror film Piranha 3D met expectations with $10 million, good for sixth place.

The losers of the weekend were the two genres that usually flourish in summer: family films and romance.

Nanny McPhee Returns was expected to top all newcomers this weekend. Instead, it managed just $8.3 million and seventh place. Still, it was a better haul than the Jennifer Aniston romance The Switch, which opened in eighth place with $8.1 million.

Final figures are due today.

Movie Tickets Reach the $20 Mark

The Wall Street Journal

 

For the first time, a major Hollywood film will hit the $20 threshold at the box office, as movie-theater owners test the public's ability to absorb ever higher ticket prices.

Several theaters will charge $20 per adult ticket to IMAX showings of the animated 3-D family film "Shrek Forever After," the fourth "Shrek" installment from DreamWorks Animation. The theaters include the AMC theater in Manhattan's Kips Bay neighborhood, AMC Loews 34, AMC Loews Lincoln Square and AMC Empire 42nd Street.

The increases weren't officially announced, but were reflected in prices posted Wednesday on movie-ticketing Web sites such as Fandango.com and tracked by BTIG LLC media analyst Richard Greenfield.

"With the state of the economy remaining questionable, we worry pricing is simply moving up too quickly," cautioned Mr. Greenfield in a research blog post, adding that he was especially concerned about how quickly children's ticket prices are increasing. "The danger is scaring consumers away from the movie theaters."

This weekend's price increase come less than eight weeks after theater operators instituted some of the steepest hikes in a decade. Those increases in late March—in some cases of as much as 26%—varied theater to theater and focused on 3-D and IMAX showings of another DreamWorks Animation title, "How to Train Your Dragon." The same AMC theater in Manhattan charged $19.50 for an IMAX showing of "Dragon."

The $20 ticket may prove to be a psychological barrier too steep for some moviegoers to overcome, but the industry appears ready to take the risk, especially in the wake of a string of 3-D blockbusters, from "Avatar" to "Alice in Wonderland." 3-D movies accounted for the vast majority of last year's 10% jump in domestic box-office sales. That figure is likely to climb even higher for 2010.

While box-office revenues are up about 6% this year compared to the same period last year, attendance is slightly down—a reversal from several months of rapid expansion at the box office and a record-breaking year in 2009, when attendance was up more than 5% and revenues broke the $10 billion barrier.

'Alice' Extends Her No. 1 Stay with $62 Million

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Alice is still ruling the movie palace.

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" easily remained the No. 1 weekend draw with $62 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Disney fantasy has climbed to a $208.6 million total domestically, becoming the first $200 million hit released this year.

In its second weekend in theaters, "Alice in Wonderland" pulled ahead of the $206.5 million domestic haul of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" to become the top-grossing of Depp and Burton's seven films together, which include "Edward Scissorhands," "Sweeney Todd" and "Corpse Bride."

"I believe it's literally the magical, if you would, pairing of Tim and Johnny," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney. "When you take those two, they always seem to make something really out of the ordinary."

"Alice in Wonderland" added $76 million overseas to bring its international total to $221 million and its worldwide gross to $430 million.

A rush of new movies had so-so openings, led by Matt Damon's Iraq War thriller "Green Zone," which debuted at No. 2 with $14.5 million domestically. Released by Universal, "Green Zone" stars Damon as the leader of a U.S. Army team who stumbles onto a conspiracy over the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Paramount's romantic comedy "She's Out of My League" debuted at No. 3 with $9.6 million. The movie stars Jay Baruchel as a geek in an unlikely romance with a babe.

"Twilight" star Robert Pattinson's romantic drama "Remember Me" opened at No. 4 with $8.3 million. The Summit Entertainment release stars Pattinson and "Lost" co-star Emilie de Ravin in a dark story of young lovers with tragedy in their past.

In its fourth weekend, Paramount's "Shutter Island," the latest collaboration between Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese, was No. 5 with $8.1 million, raising its domestic total to $108 million.

Debuting at No. 6 with $7.6 million was Fox Searchlight's comedy "Our Family Wedding," starring America Ferrera as a Hispanic bride marrying a black man.

"Alice in Wonderland" took in nearly as much as the rest of the top-10 movies combined.

"It's like this great divide between the No. 1 and 2 films, which says that without `Alice in Wonderland' in the marketplace, we'd be hurting right now," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "By itself, it's really propelling huge box office."

Hollywood's business soared, with overall revenues at $144 million, up 43 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Race to Witch Mountain" led with a $24.4 million debut.

For the year, revenues are at $2.24 billion, up 9 percent compared to receipts last year, when Hollywood took in a record $10.6 billion.

Factoring in higher admission prices, movie attendance this year is running 6.7 percent ahead of 2009's, according to Hollywood.com. Before "Alice in Wonderland" opened, attendance was lagging slightly behind last year's.

"In just a couple of weeks, `Alice' has turned the entire marketplace around almost single-handedly," Dergarabedian said.

James Cameron's science-fiction sensation remained a strong draw after nearly three months in theaters, taking in $6.6 million to raise its domestic total to $730.3 million. The 20th Century Fox release has topped $2.6 billion worldwide.

Summit Entertainment's "The Hurt Locker," which beat "Avatar" for best picture at the Academy Awards, got a slight box-office bump from its Oscar triumph. The Iraq War drama, which is out on DVD but came back to theaters for Oscar season, pulled in $828,000, raising its box-office total to $15.7 million.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Alice in Wonderland," $62 million.

2. "Green Zone," $14.5 million.

3. "She's Out of My League," $9.6 million.

4. "Remember Me," $8.3 million.

5. "Shutter Island," $8.1 million.

6. "Our Family Wedding," $7.6 million.

7. "Avatar," $6.6 million.

8. "Brooklyn's Finest," $4.3 million.

9. "Cop Out," $4.2 million.

10. "The Crazies," $3.7 million.