Expendables seizes No. 1 spot with $35M debut
Stallone and his pumped-up pals lifted Lionsgate’s 1980s-style action romp “The Expendables” to a No. 1 debut with $35 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
While the macho “Expendables” lured male audiences, Julia Roberts delivered a crowd-pleaser for women with Sony’s “Eat Pray Love,” which opened at No. 2 with $23.7 million.
“By combining all that star power, they really had a strong debut,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. “Maybe star power doesn’t work with just one star, but when you throw in a dozen, it really looked fun. In the action world, these guys are big names.”
Adapted from Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir, “Eat Pray Love” stars Julia Roberts as a woman traveling the world in search of enlightenment after her divorce.
Lionsgate deliberately chose this weekend to open “The Expendables” since it would be aiming for a different audience than “Eat Pray Love.”
“We figured anybody going to see ‘Eat Pray Love’ would not want to see ‘Expendables,’ and vice versa,” said David Spitz, head of distribution at Lionsgate.
via yahoo.com
THE EXPENDABLES is #1 again!
Jet Li’s new movie THE EXPENDABLES, which opened on Aug. 13th in the United States, is again
the number one box office hit. The film took in an estimated $16 million at theaters according to Variety.com.
The hard hitting action thriller released by Lionsgate is written and directed by legendary actor Sylvester Stallone and stars Stallone, Jet Li, and
Jason Statham with action stars Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, David Zayas, Terry Crews and Mickey Rourke.
Co-writer, director and star Sylvester Stallone brings together a powerhouse cast of action superstars – never before seen together in
one film. THE EXPENDABLES directed by Sylvester Stallone from a story by David Callaham and screenplay by David Callaham and Sylvester
Stallone, and is produced by Avi Lerner, John Thompson and Kevin King Templeton. Lionsgate and Millennium Films present a Nu Image
production.
THE EXPENDABLES is now playing everywhere in the US. For more information: http://expendablesthemovie.com