The Expendables 2 manhandled the competition at the box office this past weekend with the same ease as its stars, lead by Sylvester Stallone, can pull a gun trigger. Last weekend’s champ The Bourne Legacy suffered a steep decline but still nabbed second place, while newcomer ParaNorman finished right in line with expectations for a third place finish.
The dust is still settling and final numbers won’t be out until Monday afternoon, but right now Lionsgate is reporting a $28.8 million opening weekend for The Expendables 2. The original Expendables gunned up $34.8 million in business, so the sequel trailed its predecessor by roughly 17 percent.
Lionsgate must have been hoping to equal or top The Expendables with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis getting in on the action. Despite their expanded roles and the addition of Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Liam Hemsworth, The Expendables 2 ran out of gas and will need to hold strong over the next several weeks in order to get talks for The Expendables 3 underway.
The Bourne Legacy and Universal were blindsided by a 55 percent drop and $17 million tally in its second weekend of release. Even though Jeremy Renner’s first appearance in the Bourne franchise still managed to finish second, Universal can’t be too thrilled with the $69.6 million gross thus far and potential for equally or worse drops next weekend.
ParaNorman was in a battle with Sparkle for this place through Friday and ended up easily securing the position with $14 million. That’s right in line with expectations for stop-motion animated films.
The Campaign snuck into fourth with $13.4 million after finishing fifth on Friday. With $51.7 million in the bank thus far, look for the Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis comedy to make a run for $80 million before heading off to Blu-ray and DVD.
Whitney Houston’s final performance in Sparkle rounded out the top five with $12 million. A solid “A” CinemaScore rating should help the film play strong for several weeks to come.
Here are the remaining top 10 films for the weekend ending Sunday, August 19, 2012.
6. The Dark Knight Rises (Warner Bros.) – $11.1 million, $409.9 million total
7. The Odd Life of Timothy Green (Disney) – $10.9 million, $15.2 million total
8. Hope Springs (Sony) – $9.1 million, $35 million total
9. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (Fox) – $3.9 million, $38.8 million overall
10. Total Recall (Sony) – $3.5 million, $51.8 million overall
Next Wednesday, Hit & Run gets a mid-week release, while The Apparition and David Koepp’s Premium Rush will take aim at The Expendables 2 on Friday.
