Box Office: 'The Expendables' sucks the life out of 'Vampires' for No. 1

Sylvester Stallone is flying high after "The Expendables" stays at No. 1 for the second straight weekend.

Credit: Lionsgate

So much for the "Vampire" threat at the box office this weekend.  "The Expendables" had a strong Saturday to come back and win the frame with $16.5 million.  After its second straight No. 1 finish, Sylvester Stallone's epic action flick has grossed $64.9 million.

As for "Vampires Suck," the comedy spoof found $12.2 million and has taken in $18.8 million since its Wednesday debut.  Considering the marketing for the 20th Century Fox flick came down to a last minute barrage of TV spots and a trailer, there won't be many complaints on the Century City lot on Monday.

In third place, "Eat Pray Love" fell just under 50% for another $12 million and a new cue of $47.1 million.  Sony Pictures will hope the Julia Roberts romantic drama will eventually Meryl Streep's "Julie and Julia's" domestic gross of $94 million last year.  We'll see.

Bow Wow's "Lottery Ticket" didn't perform like a Tyler Perry movie, but the Alcon Entertainment produced comedy found $11.1 million.  Not bad for a late August release aimed mostly at the African-American market.

The Weinstein Company may have made a big mistake waiting so long to show the long delayed "Piranha 3D" to critics (it currently has an 83% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but only 53 grade on Metacritic).  Unfortunately, it was too little too late as the horror comedy scared up just $10 million.  Whether it can even reach the $40 million mark remains to be seen.

The weekend's other new releases, Miramax's "The Switch" with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman, grossed $8.1 million and "Nanny McPhee Returns" just $8.3 million.

In disappointing news, audiences have completely rejected "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" outside of big cities.  The Edgar Wright flick appears to have found just $5 million in its second go around for a 10-day total of $20.y million.  Any hopes for profitability will have to lie overseas and on DVD/Blu-ray for the Universal Studios endeavor.

Next weekend's new releases include "The Last Exorcism" and "Takers."

Weekend box office actuals are released on Monday.

Gregory Ellwood
Editor-in-Chief, Co-Founder

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With over a decade of experience in the movie industry, Ellwood survived working for two major studios and has written for Variety, MSN and the LA Times. A co-founder of HitFix, Ellwood spends his time relaxing hitting 3’s on the basketball court and following his beloved Clippers.