'Exorcism', 'Takers' Virtually Tied

The Last Exorcism and Takers, two new releases this weekend, battled it out in a very tight race where it looks like The Last Exorcism squeaked into first place, but the reality won't be known until sometime on Monday.

With an estimated $21.3 million, The Last Exorcism is looking like the first place film for the weekend, but with terrible word of mouth, it's quite possible the film suffered more of a Saturday to Sunday drop than the studio initially estimated.

Takers took in an estimated $21 million in its opening frame, and also suffers from terrible word of mouth, so it'll be interesting to see how this shakes out.

No matter which film takes the top spot, however, Lion's Gate's The Last Exorcism is the real success story here.  Even if the film drops by 70% in its second weekend (a very real possibility),| it's already a hugely profitable film thanks to its tiny $1.8 million production budget.  Even adding in the costs for prints & advertising, a $20 million+ opening will bring the film well into the black.

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'Expendables' Hold Out, 'Piranha' Flounders

Last weekend's number one film, The Expendables, held onto the top box office slot for another weekend, dropping 52.6% for $16.5 million.  After two weeks in release, the Sylvester Stallone film has grossed just under $65 million, showing that Stallone still has legs.

Second place went to newcomer Vampires Suck.  The parody of the Twilight series opened with $12.2 million.   With a modest production budget of $20 million, even considering how quickly these films tend to decline at the box office, the film should be able to turn a nice profit once international grosses and home video are taken into consideration.

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Explosive 'Expendables' Take First Place, 'Pilgrim' Underwhelms

Sylvester Stallone's latest action flick, The Expendables, rocketed to a great start for a mid-budget action movie, bringing in $35 million in its opening weekend.  The film, starring, written and directed by Stallone also features a long list of action heroes in various roles, including Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis, Jason Statham, Jet Li, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin and even a cameo by Arnold Schwarzneggar.  

Second place went to Julia Roberts' newest film, Eat Pray Love, based on the best-selling memoir of the same name.  It opened with a very respectable $23.7 million in box office grosses.

Last weekend's #1 opener, The Other Guys, fell 49% in its second weekend to claim the number three spot with $18 million.  The Will Ferrel/Mark Wahlberg buddy-cop comedy has grossed just over $70 million in its first 10 days of release.

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