Weekend Box Office: August 20-22

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1. The Expendables - $16.5 million

2. Vampires Suck - $12.2 million

3. Eat Pray Love - $12 million

4. Lottery Ticket - $11.1 million

5. The Other Guys - $10.1 million

6. Piranha 3D - $10 million

7. Nanny McPhee Returns - $8.3 million

8. The Switch - $8.1 million

9. Inception - $7.6 million

10. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - $5 million

Summer is definitely winding down when a useless spoof such as Vampires Suck actually comes in second for the weekend.  The good news about that was that at least it wasn't first.  That went to The Expendables for the second weekend in a row.  While it's certainly not a mega-blockbuster, it's performing strongly enough to be a solid hit for a cast of aging action stars.

Vampires Suck inexplicably came in at second place with $12.2 million ($18.6 when you include grosses since it opened on Wednesday).  It will go away by next weekend, so that's all that's worth mentioning about that.

Eat Pray Love did all right in its second weekend, with another $12 million.  Lottery Ticket also had a decent opening weekend, coming in fourth with $11.1 million.  Will Ferell has definitely rebounded from last year's disaster Land of the Lost, with The Other Guys beating out most of this weekend's new release to round out the top five with $10.1 million to bring it to an $88 million domestic total so far.

This weekend's other new releases didn't fare as well.  The intentionally bad Piranha 3D couldn't even scare off Snakes on a Plane's opening weekend total, even with 3D ticket sales.  Nanny McPhee Returns opened with $8.3 million, which was well off from the original film's $14 million opening weekend in 2006, but the sequel has already grossed $62 million overseas since it opened earlier this year.

No one seemed particularly interested in Jennifer Aniston's latest film (can anyone tell the difference between her films anymore?) either, with The Switch opening to not much notice with $8.1 million. 

Inception held on with another $7.6 million, bringing its domestic total to $261 million.  Its worldwide total now stands at an incredible (and well deserved) $619 million.

Despite being well-received by fans, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is fading quickly from theaters, barely staying in the top 10 with $5 million.  It may be a box office flop, but I'm still predicting cult-hit status for this one.

Stay tuned for next week, when The Last Exorcism and Avatar: Special Edition open in theaters.