The Expendables with Sylvester Stallone and his muscle men lived up to expectations at the box office on Friday by pulling in an estimated $13 million its opening day. The first place finish should translate to the entire weekend haul that should land somewhere between $30 and $35 million.
Coming in second was another newcomer and counter-programming to Expendables, Julia Roberts’ vehicle Eat Pray Love. It drew $8.5 million on Friday and should finish somewhere in the neighborhood of $24 million through Sunday.
Universal had their fingers crossed that Scott Pilgrim’s nearly unanimous positive reviews in the blogosphere would translate to a box office boost. Quite the opposite happened; Scott may have saved the world, but he only brought in $4.5 million on Friday and will be lucky to cross $12 million when the weekend’s done. Like Kick-Ass, Scott Pilgrim should perform significantly stronger on Blu-ray and DVD when it’s released before this year is out.
Check back tomorrow for the complete weekend box office estimates report.
