Looks like the agents for Hulk Hogan, Mr. T, Carl Weathers and Steven Seagal should wait by their phones: The Expendables exploded the box office this weekend, meaning Ari Lerner's dream of a sequel remains quite alive. In other box office news: Julia Roberts will have to hope for Julie & Julia-like legs and Scott Pilgrim ran out of quarters. Click ahead for the weekend receipts.
1. The Expendables
Gross: $35,030,000 (new)
Screens: 3,6270 (PSA: $10,713)
Weeks: 1
If the success of The Expendables proves anything, it's that people still love Sylvester Stallone. This marks the fifth decade in a row that the musclebound star has seen one of his film's lead the box office. As for what else to take out of this opening: Give it up for the Lionsgate marketing department, which didn't worry about spoiling the film's big cameos, so long as it meant getting fannies in the seats.
2. Eat, Pray, Love
Gross: $23,700,000 (new)
Screens: 3,082 (PSA: $7,690)
Weeks: 1
Who knew Eat, Pray, Love would perform like a geek movie? There was a huge upfront gotta-see factor for fans of Elizabeth Gilbert's source memoir -- almost 40 percent of its weekend total came from Friday night. In the end, Julia Roberts' return to the big screen wound up grossing about $3 million more than Julie & Julia opened to last summer. That film, with great reviews and strong word of mouth, topped $90 million before shuffling off. Whether Roberts can turn a similar trick remains to be seen.
3. The Other Guys
Gross: $18,000,000 ($70,543,000)
Screens: 3,651 (PSA: $4,930)
Weeks: 2 (change: -49.4%)
Not even the release of those incredibly out of place closing credits could slow down The Other Guys this weekend! Ahem.
4. Inception
Gross: $11,370,000 ($248,554,000)
Screens: 3,120 (PSA: $3,644)
Weeks: 5 (change: -38.6%)
Inception still hasn't dropped more than 40 percent during any weekend in the last five, so its staying power domestically continues to be quite remarkable. People love this thing -- just not 11-year-old film critics. Worldwide, Inception is closing in on $560 million in ticket sales, which sounds like a lot of black ink for Warner Bros. until you realize that Sherlock Holmes grossed $523 million worldwide for the studio on a budget that was roughly 56 percent smaller than what Christopher Nolan had to play with.
5. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Gross: $10,525,000 (new)
Screens: 2,818 (PSA: $3,735)
Weeks: new
And you thought Kick-Ass was a box office disappointment. Not even the near unanimous love of every person on the Internet -- though not Jeff Wells; get off his lawn, you effete kids! -- could give Scott Pilgrim vs. The World a bigger opening weekend than Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, despite the fact that it appeared on over 400 more screens and cost anywhere between six and nine times as much. That, friends, is bad. On the bright side, the film is great, so long as you're a fan of the graphic novel. And $10.5 million is double the opening of Edgar Wright's previous film, Hot Fuzz. Continue? 5, 4, 3, 2...
[Numbers via Box Office Mojo]